Rasmus Stjerne (Hvidovre, Denmark) wins the Latvia International Challenger, defeating Yves Hess (Zug, Switzerland) 4-3. Stjerne with Johnny Frederiksen at third, Mikkel Poulsen and Oliver Dupont on the front end take home the $2,081CDN first place cheque along with 11.524 world ranking points, while Hess receives $1,189CDN and 9.055 world ranking points for their second place finish. Starting with hammer, Stjerne blanked the first 2 ends, then got on the board scoring 2 in the third end. After a blank end, Hess scored a single the fifth end to trail 2-1, when Stjerne responded in the sixth end scoring 2. Hess scored a single in the seventh end, added a steal in the eighth end but it was not enough as Stjerne won 4-3. In the Bronze medal game, Sebeastian Wunderer (Kitbuehel, Austria) defeated Cameron Bryce (Stirling, Scotland) 7-3. Wunderer won $743CDN for finishing 3rd, while Bryce won $446CDN for finishing 4th with both receiving 6.997 ranking points for their semifinal finishes. In the semifinals, Stjerne defeated Bryce 7-2 and Hess won 7-4 against Wunderer. In the quarterfinals, Stjenre defeated Martins Truksans (Riga, Latvia) 6-3, Bryce won 7-4 against Ritvars Gulbis, Hess won 8-5 over Steffen Mellemseter (Oppdal, Norway) and Wunderer efeated Karlis Smilga (Riga, Latvia). Truksans, Gulbis, Mellemseter and Smilga earnec 4.939 ranking points for their quarterfinal finishes. Stjerne went 4-0 in the 15 team round-robin pools qualifying round. In their opening game, Stjerne defeated Smilga 7-3, won against Greg Dunn (Kent, England) 8-2, against Mellemseter 9-1, and won their final preliminary game against Borys Jasiecki (Sopot, Poland) 6-3 to qualify for the playoffs. |