Team Gold - The Hard Way

Cory is back home and getting some well-earned sleep after a brutal travel schedule that started in London at 2am with a bus trip to Toronto airport to catch a 7am flight home to Vancouver, arriving this morning around 10am Pacific time.

So time to catch up with a bit more detail about the Team Gold Medal game. First, the Team heads to the podium to get their Gold Medals....with Cory last in the line....to receive their medals:




That Team Gold was far from easy and it wasn't decided until the 10th frame.

Here's Cory at the start in the first frame, first ball missed right, second ball missed left...fortunately his competitor on the lane next to him punched the head pin, making it virtually impossible to get a spare:







But he started getting it going in the second frame, and his coach's reaction tells you it's a strike, with his mum's cheerleading in the background, while Cory and his team do their "that's the way we like it, a huh a huh" celebration dance:





Then in the third frame, he throws the ball awkwardly and it goes left of the head pin, but he did pick up the spare, while his opponent did not:





Then in the fourth, a well thrown ball, but the right corner doesn't drop...but a really nice throw for the spare:







Now into the fifth frame, after spares in the 3rd and 4th, a strike. His competitor failed to follow lane courtesy and bowled at the same time as he did, but Cory still managed to stay on target, though she did as well and got a strike too:




A shot of the large crowd on hand, all of us feeling the tension:




Then, after getting strikes in the sixth and seventh frames for 3 in a row, Cory punched the head pin in the eighth, making it virtually impossible for the spare. As he set up for the ninth frame, his competitor once again ignored lane courtesy and bowled without waiting for Cory to finish. Cory wisely stepped off the lane and restarted:





He then takes a long time to refocus, throws a good looking ball, but again, punches the head pin. Two in a row, head pin punch in the 8th and again in the 9th.





In the meantime, his competitor threw a strike in the eighth and a spare in the ninth, and suddenly in spite of Cory's 3 strikes in a row, she had caught up to him.

At this point, we knew the rest of the team had struggled with only one other teammate winning her match up. That meant Cory not only had to win his matchup, but had to win with enough points over his competitor to give his team the 3 additional points that would take them to Gold.

So onto the 10th frame, with the Gold Medal hanging in the balance, Cory prepares himself, focuses as he always does, and once again his competitor fails to follow lane courtesy. With his coach preoccupied with tabulating the scores, I yell to Cory "let her bowl". (Later Cory told me he heard "better bowl" thinking I was telling him to bowl quickly.) At that point, I forgot about any more videos and put my camera down without even turning it off!





Cory stepped off the lane, and let his competitor bowl, and this time she punched the head pin.

Cory then got back into position, calmly refocused, took his time, and then threw a strike.

257!


Game, set, match, GOLD.

And the team's reaction when they get the news...but they didn't know just how close it had been:






A close look at two hard-earned medals (Cory bowled close to 200 games since last October)





A last fond look at Fleetway Lanes, site of Cory's first National Championship.





Will there be a chance for another one in St. Albert, Alberta at the National Winter Games there in 2012? Stay tuned, winter's not that far away, and Cory's already thinking about attending a ski race camp in Colorado in November.


Thanks again to all of Cory's family & friends for your tremendous support - sharing all of this with you has made this even more special.


Look for a note from Cory about his National Games experience in an update soon - after he's caught up on his sleep.