Brad Gushue (St. John's, NL) won
7-1 over
Hayato Sato (Sapporo, JPN) in the Final of the Karuizawa International, held December 1 - 3, 2023 at the Karuizawa Ice Park in Karuizawa, Japan. To advance to the championship game, Gushue won
6-4 over
Niklas Edin (Karlstad, SWE) in the semifinals
Gushue finished 3-0 in the 8-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Gushue defeated
Soo-Hyuk Kim (Gyeongbuk, KOR) 6-2, then won
9-2 against
Kohsuke Hirata (Kitami, JPN) and
7-4 against
Yusuke Morozumi (Karuizawa, JPN) in their final qualifying round match.
For winning the Karuizawa International Championship title, Gushue earned
26.250 world rankings points along with the $7,339CDN first prize cheque, remaining in 6th place overall on the
World Ranking Standings with a net gain of -25.875 after improving upon their best so far this season. Gushue ranks 7th overall on the
Year-to-Date rankings with
152.375 points earned so far this season.
