CHAMPION: Liu Wins 2017 Challenge de Curling de Gatineau (Arena)

SKIP
Rui
Liu

Third
Xiao Ming
Xu

Second
Dongxu
Jiang

Lead
Jia Liang
Zang

Rui Liu (Harbin, CHN) won 8-2 over Peter De Cruz (Geneva, SUI) in the Final of the Challenge de Curling de Gatineau (Arena), held October 19 - 22, 2017 at the Buckingham Curling Club in Buckingham, Canada. To advance to the championship game, Liu won 6-4 over Mike McLean (Ottawa, ON) in the semifinals of the 2017 Challenge de Curling de Gatineau (Arena) in Buckingham, Quebec, Canada; and won 7-1 over Martin Ferland (Levis, QC) in the quarterfinals.

Liu finished 4-0 in the 28-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Liu defeated Brent MacDougall (Halifax, NS) 7-3, then won 10-7 against Mark Homan (Baie d'Urfe, QC) and 7-1 against Greg Balsdon (Kingston, ON). Liu won 6-5 against Jean-Michel Menard (Gatineau, QC) in their final qualifying round match.

For winning the Challenge de Curling de Gatineau (Arena) Championship title, Liu earned 47.820 world rankings points along with the $11,000CDN first prize cheque, moving up 3 spots the World Ranking Standings into 15th place overall with 295.575 total points. Liu ranks 2nd overall on the Year-to-Date rankings with 163.042 points earned so far this season.

RECORD	W	L	T	PCT	HMR	STL	1PT	EEH	EES

SCORING	ENDs	PF	PA	PF/G	PA/G	+/-	EF/G	EA/G	PF/E	PA/E	BE/G

WITH HAMMER	ENDs	PF	PA	BE	4s	3s	2s	PF/E	PA/E	HE	SD

WITHOUT HAMMER	ENDs	PF	PA	BE	4s	3s	2s	PF/E	PA/E	FE	SE

2009: Jean-Michel Menard
Jean-Michel Menard, Martin Crete, Eric Sylvain, Jean Gagnon
Gatineau, QC
2010: Serge Reid
Serge Reid, Francois Gionest, Simon Collin, Steeve Villeneuve
Saguenay, QC
2011: Jean-Michel Menard
Jean-Michel Menard, Martin Crete, Eric Sylvain, Philippe Menard
Gatineau/Levis, QC
2012: Mark Dacey
Mark Dacey, Tommy Sullivan, Stephen Burgess, Andrew Gibson
Halifax, NS
2013: Brad Gushue
Brad Gushue, Brett Gallant, Adam Casey, Geoff Walker
St. John's, NL
2014: Mike McEwen
Mike McEwen, B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wozniak, Denni Neufeld
Winnipeg, MB
2015: Brad Gushue
Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant, Geoff Walker
St. John's, NL
2016: John Epping
John Epping, Mathew Camm, Craig Savill, Tim March
Toronto, ON
2017: Rui Liu
Rui Liu, Xiao Ming Xu, Dongxu Jiang, Jia Liang Zang
Harbin, CHN
2018: Scott McDonald
Scott McDonald, Jonathan Beuk, Wesley Forget, Scott Chadwick
Kingston, ON

Brendan Bottcher (photo: Stan Fong) is moving on from now former teammates Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, announced Tuesday.

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