CHAMPION: Iwai Wins 2018 Japan Curling Championship

Fourth
Go
Aoki

SKIP
Masaki
Iwai

Second
Ryotaro
Shukuya

Lead
Yutaka
Aoyama

Masaki Iwai (Hokkaido, JPN) won 4-3 over Shinya Abe (Sapporo, JPN) in the Final of the Japan Curling Championship, held January 29 - February 4, 2018 in Hokkaido, Japan. To advance to the championship game, Iwai won 9-1 over Yoshiro Shimizu (Karuizawa, JPN) in the semifinals of the 2018 Japan Curling Championship in Hokkaido, Japan;

Iwai finished 7-1 in the 9-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Iwai defeated Minori Suzuki (Aomori, JPN) 7-3, then went on to lose 9-4 against Abe. Iwai responded with a 9-5 win over Tatsuya Ogawa (Hokkaido, JPN). Iwai won 4-3 against Shimizu, then won 10-2 against Kazuhisa Unoura (Osaka, JPN) and 4-1 against Atsushi Kamigochi (Hokkaido, JPN). Iwai won 9-5 against Junpei Kanda (Tokyo, JPN), then won 8-2 against Naomasa Takeda (Sapporo, JPN) in their final qualifying round match.

For winning the Japan Curling Championship Championship title, Iwai earned 9.975 world rankings points, moving up 358 spots the World Ranking Standings into 289th place overall with 9.975 total points. Iwai ranks 203rd overall on the Year-to-Date rankings with 9.975 points earned so far this season.