 Team Kim Eun-jung (Photo: Curling1spoon) reigned supreme at the Gangenung Curling Centre, taking down Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura 7-4 to claim the championship title. By: Cameron Sallaj It was a perfect week for the Gangneung City Hall lineup of Eun-jung, Kyeong-ae, Cho-hi and Seon-yeong Kim as they won all seven games on home ice to claim the Gangneung Invitational 2025 tour title. Hosting sixteen teams from nine different countries, the Gangneung Invitational was created as a tune up for many teams as they prepare for the 2025 World Women's Curling Championship, scheduled March 15 to 23 in Uijeongbu. On Sunday, however, only two teams remained with Team Kim facing Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura in the championship game. A pregame draw to the button was required prior to the final with both teams entering with unblemished 6-0 records. This was won by the Japanese champions who were then forced to one in the opening end. This was matched by the Koreans in the second end who were also forced to just one. Team Yoshimura then took another single in the third to go ahead 2-1. In the fourth end, the tide began to shift with momentum swinging heavily in the Koreans favor. After a perfect draw by Kim on her first shot, Yoshimura was unable to promote her guard into shot stone position, giving the home team a draw for three to take their first lead of the game. Into the second half, Team Kim continued to apply pressure, stealing a point in the fifth end to increase their lead. Then in the sixth, Yoshimura's final draw against four came up light, giving up another steal of two points to trail 7-2. After getting those two points back in the seventh, the team from Sapporo conceded with Kim taking the championship title 7-4. Gangneung Invitational 2025 - Final - Gangneung City Hall (Kim Eun-jung) vs Fortius (Sayaka Yoshimura): For the win, Team Kim takes home 15,000,000 Korean won and 41.250 ranking points, keeping them solidly in fifth position in the world. It was also a good payday for Team Yoshimura who won 10,000,000 won and 30.250 points for second, moving them up from tenth to eighth. Both ranked firmly in the top 10, Kim and Yoshimura will both be challengers at their respective Olympic Trials as they try to qualify for Milano-Cortina 2026. Next on the docket for Kim is the AMJ Campbell Players' Championship in Toronto from April 8 to 13 while Yoshimura will first compete in the World Women's Championship for Japan before heading to Canada to close out the season. Both teams are part of a strong Asian women's contingent that will be present in Toronto with three Japanese and three Korean teams making the cut. Also heading to the Players' are the semifinals from the Gangneung Invitational, Korea's Ha Seung-youn and Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa. In an all-Korean semifinal matchup, Kim stole in an extra end to clip Ha 8-7 while Fujisawa also gave up a steal in an extra end to lose 5-3 to Yoshimura. Both teams took home 5,000,000 won for third place and 23.375, holding them strongly in sixth and eleventh on the world rankings respectively. Rounding out the playoff round in Gangneung was Wang Rui (Beijing, CHN), Isabella Wrana (Sundbyberg, SWE), Kang Bo-bae (Jeonbuk, KOR) and Marianne Roervik (Lillehammer, NOR) who all lost in the quarterfinals, earning themselves 16.500 ranking points each. Team Kim Eun-jung (Gangneung, KOR) finished 4-0 in the sixteen-team qualifying round at the Gangneung Invitational 2025. To begin, the team won 8-3 over Virginija Paulauskaite (Vilnius, LTU) before stealing a 7-6 win over Tabitha Peterson (St. Paul, MN). They then routed Satsuki Fujisawa (Kitami, JPN) 9-1 before beating Kang Bo-bae (Jeonbuk, KOR) 6-5 in their final qualifying game. Taking the top seed in the playoff round, Kim defeated Marianne Roervik 7-2 before stealing an 8-7 semifinal win against Ha Seung-youn (Chuncheon, KOR) to advance to the final. |
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Team Homan (Photo: Curling Canada) sits third in the standings with four games left to play in the round robin.
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