UPDATE NO. 3: SUNDAY, OCT. 2, 6:30 P.M.
The women’s first prize money is staying in B.C.
Team Brown from Kamloops, featuring Corryn Brown at skip, third Erin Pincott, second Dezaray Hawes and lead Samantha Fisher, won the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic at the Vernon Curling Club Sunday evening, defeating Ikue Kitazawa and her rink from Nagano, Japan, 5-4 in a thrilling women’s final.
Brown snapped a 3-3 tie by scoring a pair in seven, then watched as Kitazawa’s last stone in the eighth and final end to score a deuce and force an extra end was heavy, allowing for only one point.
Brown, coached by Vernon’s Jim Cotter, defeated Kitazawa 7-6 in the first day of the event.
The win was worth $7,000 for the Kamloops rink. The Japanese squad collected $5,000.
Meanwhile, the team from Karuizawa, a resort town in the mountains near 1998 Olympic Winter Games host Nagano, defeated the fellows from Kitami, a city on Hokkaido Island almost 1,500 kilometres to the north, in the all-Japan men’s final at the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Vernon Curling Club.
Skip Riku Yanagisawa, third Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, second Takeru Yamamoto and lead Satoshi Koizumi pocketed the $4,000 first prize cheque with a 6-2, seven-end win over country mates Kohsuke Hirata, skip, third Shingo Usui, second Ryota Meguro and lead Yoshiya Miura.
Hirata pocketed $3,000 as runner-up. Yanagisawa was undefeated on the weekend in Vernon.
UPDATE NO. 2: SUNDAY, OCT. 2, 3:05 P.M.
It’s an all-Japan final on the men’s side of the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic at the Vernon Curling Club.
Riku Yanagisawa, from Karuizawa, meets Kohsuke Hirata of Kitami, in the final at 4 p.m. after both recorded semifinal victories.
Yanagisawa scored three in the third end to take a 5-1 lead and rolled to a 6-3 win over Kelowna’ Brent Pierce.
Hirata locked up a 7-4 win over Sean Geall of New Westminster with a steal of two points in the final end.
Ikue Kitazawa can give Japan a sweep of the top prize money as she faces Corryn Brown of Kamloops in the women’s championship at 4 p.m.
Kitazawa scored five in the fourth end, resulting in handshakes, in her semifinal matchup with Jessie Hunkin of Edmonton. Brown needed a deuce in an extra end to move to the final after a 7-5 victory over Korea’s Eun Ji Gim.
UPDATE: SUNDAY, OCT. 2, 12:05 P.M.
It took extra time and an extra end for Ikue Kitazawa to grab the final semifinal spot at the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic at the Vernon Curling Club.
Kitazawa forced an extra end with a deuce in the eighth and final regulation end, then stole the winning point to beat countrywoman Satsuki Fujisawa 7-6.
The win avenged a pair of losses to Fujisawa in the Japan Curling Championships in May for Kitazawa, who now faces Edmonton’s Jesse Hunkin in a women’s semifinal that was slated to start at 12 p.m.
The playoffs are set at the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic at the Vernon Curling Club.
The women’s and men’s quarterfinals will kick things off Sunday, Oct. 2, at 9 a.m.
On the women’s side, Satsuki Fujisawa will face Ikue Kitazawa in an all-Japan matchup. The winner advances to face Jessie Hunkin of Edmonton in the semifinals at 12 p.m.
The other women’s quarterfinal saw Korea’s Eun Ji Gim rally from a 3-2 deficit by scoring three in the fourth, then stealing deuces in the sixth and seventh ends for a 9-3 victory over Kayla Skrlik of Calgary.
Gim now plays Corryn Brown of Kamloops in the other women’s semi.
On the men’s side, an all-B.C. quarterfinal went to kelowna’s Brent Pierce, who scored three in the fifth to help put away Sebastien Robillard of Port Coquitlam 8-5. Pierce now faces Riku Yanagisawa of Japan in a 12 p.m. semifinal.
Japan’s Kohsuke Hirata is playing New Westminster’s Sean Geall in the other final four matchup. Geal scored three in the final end with hammer to defeat Cameron de Jong’s Penticton/Vernon rink 6-4 in a Sunday morning quarterfinal.
The de Jong foursome includes Matt Tolley of Penticton at third, and the all-Vernon front end of Erik Colwell at second and John Slattery playing lead.
The championship games in both draws will be at 4 p.m. Sunday.
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roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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