Canada defeats Norway in semifinal
Faces Scotland in Sunday's World Championship final

GRAND FORKS -- It will be Scotland versus Canada for the 2008 World
Men's Curling Championship.

Canada's Kevin Martin defeated Norway's Thomas Ulsrud 5-4 in
Saturday's semi-final to qualify for a rematch with Scotland's David
Murdoch in Sunday afternoon's championship final.

Martin started fast with a deuce in the first end and added another in
the third for a 4-1 lead. He increased it to 5-2 in the eighth and led
5-3 coming home, and was comfortable giving the Norwegians a steal in
the final end.

"You can't win if you don't get to the final," proclaimed Martin, 41.

"So we have a shot. You know what, we'll play our damndest tomorrow.
Win or lose, it won't be for lack of trying."

Martin tried to beat Scotland in Friday's Page playoff, but squandered
a 6-2 lead to lose 7-6. He's also tried numerous times to win an
international title for Canada, but has always come up short.

Ulsrud, who heads to Saturday night's bronze medal match against
China's Fengchun Wang, spoke to that kind of Canadian curling
expectation.

"That's the good thing about being from Norway," said Ulsrud.

"They'll be happy with a bronze medal. It's not like being from
Canada, where they just want gold."

The Canadians outshot Norway 93 to 88 in shooting percentage.

Sunday's finale will be a rematch of sorts of the 1991 Worlds final,
in which a then-youthful Martin lost to two members of Murdoch's
current team, third Graeme Connal and second Peter Smith.

Numerous television groups are delivering live and tape-delayed
action, plus highlight packages, to world curling fans. Eurosport,
CBC/CBCSports.ca/Bold (Canada), NBCOlympics.com and WCSN (United
States) and CurlTV are all on site in Grand Forks, with World Curling
Television (Production Manager Joanna Kelly) available for footage
inquiries at +1 701 777 5619 or +1 701 777 5621.