Rich Ruohonen (Minneapolis, USA) won
5-4 over
Jaap van Dorp (Zoetermeer, NED) in the Final of the Changan Ford International Curling Elite, held December 5 - 10, 2019 in Xining, China. To advance to the championship game, Ruohonen won
6-3 over
Tanner Horgan (Winnipeg Beach, MB) in the semifinals of the 2019 Changan Ford International Curling Elite in Xining, China;
Ruohonen finished 5-2 in the 8-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Ruohonen lost
6-1 to
Qiang Zou (Beijing, CHN), then responded with a
6-4 win over
Sergei Glukhov (Sochi, RUS). Ruohonen won
8-3 against
Horgan, then won
10-4 against
van Dorp. Ruohonen went on to lose
7-3 against
Chang-Min Kim (Uiseong, KOR). Ruohonen responded with a
6-4 win over
Fredrik Nyman (Stockholm, SWE). Ruohonen won
6-3 against
Andrin Schnider (St. Gallen, SUI) in their final qualifying round match.
For winning the Changan Ford International Curling Elite Championship title, Ruohonen earned
34.172 world rankings points along with the $22,683CDN first prize cheque. Ruohonen move up 2 spots after posting a net gain of 23.291 points improving upon their best 7 results so far this season, ranking 19th overall with
237.720 total points on the
World Ranking Standings. Ruohonen ranks 15th overall on the
Year-to-Date rankings with
164.619 points earned so far this season.
