Yuta Matsumura (Kitami, JPN) won
7-2 over
Scott McDonald (Kingston, ON) in the Final of the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic, held August 1 - 4, 2019 at the Hokkaido Bank Curling Stadium in Sapporo, Japan. To advance to the championship game, Matsumura won
6-5 over
Kirk Muyres (Saskatoon, SK) in the semifinals
Matsumura finished 3-1 in the 10-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Matsumura defeated
Junpei Kanda (Tokyo, JPN) 6-0, then won
7-5 against
Jason Gunnlaugson (Winnipeg, MB). Matsumura went on to lose
7-6 against
SooHyuk Kim (Seoul, KOR). Matsumura responded with a
6-4 win over
Qiang Zou (Beijing, CHN) in their final qualifying round match.
For winning the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic Championship title, Matsumura earned
36.563 world rankings points along with the $12,502CDN first prize cheque, moving up 2 spots the
World Ranking Standings into 15th place overall with
237.588 total points. Matsumura ranks 1st overall on the
Year-to-Date rankings with
36.563 points earned so far this season.
