CHAMPION: Yanagisawa Wins 2023 ZEH-NOH Japan Curling Championship

SKIP
Riku
Yanagisawa

Third
Tsuyoshi
Yamaguchi

Second
Takeru
Yamamoto

Lead
Satoshi
Koizumi

Riku Yanagisawa (Karuizawa, JPN) won 6-2 over Kohsuke Hirata (Kitami, JPN) in the Final of the ZEH-NOH Japan Curling Championship, held January 28 - February 5, 2023 in Kitami, Japan.

Yanagisawa finished 7-1 in the 9-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Yanagisawa defeated Hayato Sato (Sapporo, JPN) 9-4, then won 10-2 against Japan's Kotaro Noguchi and 9-4 against Ryo Ogihara (Tokyo, JPN). Yanagisawa won 11-2 against Hiroki Yoshioka (Okayama, JPN), then won 9-6 against Shinya Abe (Sapporo, JPN) and 8-7 against Yusuke Morozumi (Karuizawa, JPN). Yanagisawa won 8-4 against Takanori Ichimura (Nagano, JPN). Yanagisawa went on to lose 7-5 against Hirata in their final qualifying round match.

For winning the ZEH-NOH Japan Curling Championship Championship title, Yanagisawa earned 26.250 world rankings points. Yanagisawa move up 9 spots after posting a net gain of 23.253 points improving upon their best 7 results so far this season, ranking 18th overall with 150.748 total points on the World Ranking Standings. Yanagisawa ranks 15th overall on the Year-to-Date rankings with 147.750 points earned so far this season.