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 Sae Yamamoto (Sapporo, JPN) wins the Curling Stadium Alberta Curling Series, defeating Michelle Hartwell (Edmonton, AB) 5-1 at the Leduc Curling Club. (Photo: Twitter/mizk_curling) Coming off winning the 2022 World Junior Championship in May, Yamamoto with Momoka Iwase at third, Suzune Yasui and Mizuki Hara on the front end take home the $3,500 CDN first place cheque along with 22.500 world ranking points in winning their first International Tour event going undefeated in doing so. Hartwell receives $2,200CDN and 16.500 world ranking points for their second place finish. Related: Yamamoto Wins Junior Worlds: Japan Wins Historic World Curling Title While this is their first International event, Yamamoto has played several events this season on the Hokkaido Curling Tour, a new organization of events played in August and September. Yamamoto went 9-7 over four events, setting themselves up well for their trip to Canada. Yamamoto had also played four years at the Kariuzawa International prior to the 2020 shutdown of curling. Starting with hammer, Hartwell blanked the first end, got on the board scoring 1 in the second end., Yamamoto responded in the third end scoring 2. After a blank end, Yamamoto stole the fifth end, added another steal in the sixth end, and then stole another in the seventh end for handshakes and the 5-1 win.
In the semifinals, Yamamoto defeated Edmonton's Kellie Stiksma 8-3 and Hartwell defeated Calgary's Kayla Skrlik 6-5. Stiksma and Skrlik earned $1,250CDN and 12.750 ranking points for their semifinal finishes. In the quarterfinals, Skrlik defeated Marla Sherrer of Lacombe 6-4 while Stiksma defeated Jessie Hunkin of Edmonton 6-5. Yamamoto moves up to 63rd from 85th on the World Curling Federation World Team Rankings following the win, improving to 14 wins and 7 losses on the season. In their opening game, Yamamoto forged out to a 6-1 lead on Calgary's Lisa Parent, only to see nerves get to them late in the game, with Parent forcing an extra end. Game 1: Yamamoto vs. Parent The Yamamoto team regrouped and came out strong in the extra end, scoring to win 7-6. With Ueno away for the event, Momoka Iwase has moved into the third position, with Yamamoto throwing calling the game and throwing fourth stones. The young squad continued their strong play in their next two games, winning 8-4 over Trina Ball of Edmonton and 6-2 over Nicky Kaufman, also of Edmonton. Kaufman, ranking #75 on the WCF Rankings, came off a title win at the previous Alberta Curling Series stop in early November. Game 2: Yamamoto vs. Ball Game 3: Yamamoto vs. Kaufman Having squared up and proven themselves so far against a strong mix of teams, Yamamoto moves into the semifinals with their eyes on a spot in Sunday's Championship Final, played at 3:30 pm Mountain Time (7:30 am Tokyo Time) Yamamoto will face the winner of the first of two quarterfinals, with the game going at 12:30 pm Mountain Time (4:30 am Tokyo time), with Edmonton's Jessie Hunkin and Kellie Stiksma facing off on their side of the 6-team playoff bracket. Edmonton's Michelle Hartwell (#90) holds the other semifinal bye and will await the winner of the quarterfinals match between Calgary's Kayla Skrlik (#26) and Lacombe's Marla Sherrer (#71). Game 4: Semifinals: Yamamoto vs. Stiksma Game 5: FINAL: Yamamoto vs. Hartwell Growing up in the Nagano development program, Yamamoto played lead on a team at the 2016 Japanese National Championships skipped by Seina Nakajima. With age limits for juniors, she would have been at most 15 years old, playing for a team that reached the playoff round in a competitive field. Nakajima herself has graduated from the Nagano junior program and's now playing third with Ikue Kitazawa, winners of the Curling Stadium Alberta Curling Series Major in September and runners to Kaufman last month. Kitazawa has climbed all the way to #22 on the World Rankings, reaching five finals so far on the season, also winning at the KW Fall Classic in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. |
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Duluth's Korey Dropkin (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) is set to begin their tour season at the Euro Super Series in Stirling, Scotland.
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