Shinya Abe (Sapporo, JPN) won
6-1 over
Kotaro Noguchi (Sendai-shi, JPN) in the Final of the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic, held August 7 - 10 at the Hokkaido Bank Curling Stadium in Sapporo, Japan. To advance to the championship game, Abe won
5-4 over
Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (Karuizawa, JPN) in the semifinals of the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic in Sapporo, Japan;
Abe finished 3-1 in the 10-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Abe defeated
Eito Nakagawa (Hokkaido, JPN) 11-1, then won
6-5 against
Koki Ogiwara (Sapporo, JPN) and
8-1 against
P.N. Raju (Hyderabad, IN). Abe went on to lose
5-3 against
Takumi Maeda (Kitami, JPN) in their final qualifying round match.
For winning the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic Championship title, Abe earned
17.250 world rankings points along with the $9,406CDN first prize cheque. Abe move up 2 spots after posting a net gain of 8.45 points improving upon their best 1 results so far this season, ranking 19th overall with
168.250 total points on the
World Ranking Standings. Abe ranks 2nd overall on the
Year-to-Date rankings with
17.250 points earned so far this season.
