Curling-As double touching drama continues at Games, curlers are open to video review

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 15 : As controversy continues to swirl in the curling competition at the Winter Olympics over the double touching of stones, curlers say they are open to the prospect of introducing video replays to the sport.

On Friday, Sweden's men's team accused Canadian curlers of double touching stones, triggering a heated clash between players and a subsequent media frenzy.

In response, World Curling said the remainder of the Olympic competition would have officials monitoring the hog line, the point where curlers must let go during delivery.

Since the officials were introduced on Saturday, Canada women's skip Rachel Homan and British men's curler Bobby Lammie have had stones removed due to double touches.

The governing body do not use video replays in games and instead use electronic handles to detect hog line violations.

'MODERNISED' CURLING

Lammie's teammate Hammy McMillan Jr said the introduction of a system like Hawk-Eye, used in tennis and cricket, or soccer's Video Assistant Referee, could help.

"You bring in VAR or Hawk-Eye, and each team gets a challenge or two, so you've got to be dead certain that somebody did that (violation)," the Scot added. 

"I think that would be quite cool, it would maybe make curling a bit more modernised. I think video review could be the next thing, with teams getting challenges."

Luc Violette, part of the United States men's team, said it was hard for umpires standing on the sidelines to spot split-second violations. 

"I think I'd like to see some more access to video. It's such a good tool for us and you can see it (violations) so much better," he added.

"It's hard to officiate because we always say at the release, the hand's quicker than the eye. It really happens quite