It was a long way from Minneapolis, and it was on ice not a football field, but Sunday proved just as Super for Sean Geall on the Island.
Kelowna鈥檚 Geall battled through plenty of adversity to earn his second provincial championship to advance to the Tim Hortons Brier in Regina from March 3 to 11.
Geall out-lasted four-time defending champion Jim Cotter of Vernon 9-7 in an extra end to claim the 2018 belairdirect sa国际传媒 men鈥檚 curling championship final in Parksville.
Geall advanced to the final by beating Jason Montgomery of Victoria in the semifinal game played earlier Sunday.
Having lost twice previously to Cotter at the event, Geall this time dug deep to snap Cotter鈥檚 four-year run. Cotter had also won six of the last seven provincial crowns.
Geall won the event once before, in 2009, and was grateful to wrestle the title back.
鈥淚n some ways it鈥檚 a bit of a relief to get back to doing this. It feels really good,鈥� said Geall in a Curl BC statement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a while and you start to wonder if that time is going to happen again. Now I have a small family and can鈥檛 commit the time I used to commit, so yeah, this is a big one.鈥�
He shared in the win afterward with his three children, wife and parents and tears flowed as he first hugged his dad and then his mom.
The emotion ram through him after he made a brilliant in-off with his last shot to get a Cotter stone off the button as it sat near frozen on a Geall rock.
鈥淚 knew it was going to be used. I didn鈥檛 know if it was going to be him or going to be us,鈥� Geall said of his rock off in the wings. 鈥淭urns out it was us. I felt good [settling into the hack]. You just have to stay in your routine.鈥�
He did just that to earn his second purple heart.
鈥淥ur basic game plan it was to get off to a better start,鈥� said Geall, who fell behind early in both of the two previous losses to Cotter this week 鈥� in the A-event final and the Page 1-2 game. 鈥淭hen we got that nice three in nine. It was a little lucky, but you have to get the breaks, right.鈥�
Geall made a delicate take-out with his first in the ninth and followed it with a hit and stick for the three. He also made a double take-out in the 10th after Cotter delivered a run-back double, but the Vernon skip had to settle for just one to force the extra end.
鈥淭hey played pretty well,鈥� said Cotter. 鈥淪ean made some big doubles at the right time and he obviously made a great shot to win it, too, so congratulations to those guys.鈥�
It was the only loss of the week for Cotter.
鈥淚鈥檓 proud of the guys. We hung in there. Unfortunately, we had some picks in there and that didn鈥檛 help, but that鈥檚 the way curling goes. They made a great shot to win. We were getting better each game, but we were a little off that game.鈥�
The night belonged to Geall. His third, Richard, also won his second title after a victory as a skip back in 2010, the year after Geall won his first.
For Harper, it will also be his second trip to the national championship as he went as a fifth man for Cotter when he was with John Morris last year.
Geall also earned a bit of revenge after losing 7-6 to Cotter in the 2016 championship final.
