 Daniela Jentsch (Fussen, GER) and her German lineup rang in the new year with a victory in Japan, defeating Asuka Kanai (Karuizawa, JPN) 7-4 in Sunday's final in Miyota. By: Cameron Sallaj Over the 2023 New Year's weekend, the Curling Hall Miyota in Miyota, Japan played host to it's first World Curling Tour event, the New Year Medalist Curling. The event featured an international field of eight women's teams competing for the first title of the 2023 year. In the final, Germany's Daniela Jentsch and teammates Emira Abbes, Lena Kapp and Analena Jentsch secured their second event title of the season by defeating Karuizawa's Asuka Kanai 7-4 in the championship game. Opening with the hammer, Team Kanai, consisting of Asuka Kanai, Ami Enami, Yui Ueno, and Junko Nishimuro took one. After a blank in the second, Team Jentsch got on the board with three points in the third end to open up a two-point lead. The Japanese team got a single back in the fourth to close the gap 3-2. To start the second half, the Germans extended their lead to 5-2 with a score of two in the fifth end. The teams then traded deuces through the sixth and seventh ends, meaning the Jentsch rink held a three-point advantage heading into the final end. There, they ran Team Kanai out of rocks to secure the title. The German team qualified for the playoffs with a 2-1 record in pool play. They then defeated Canada's Isabelle Ladouceur rink (Waterloo, ON) 6-5 in the quarterfinals before topping Sayaka Yoshimura (Sapporo, JPN) 7-4 in the semifinal. Team Kanai advanced directly to the semifinals after an undefeated record in the preliminary round. They defeated Mayu Minami (Sapporo, JPN) 6-1 to qualify for the championship game. This is Team Jentsch's second event title of the 2022-23 season. Back in August, the team was victorious at the Euro Super Series in Scotland. In an interview after the game, skip Daniela Jentsch explained the team's goals for second half of the year. "I think our main focus is to improve as a team, go to the World Championship and come top six and just finish the season strong." For Team Kanai, this is also their second event final of the season, however, with another second-place finish. Also in August, the team finished runner-up to Sayaka Yoshimura at the Wakkanai Midori Challenge Cup. The team will be one of the nine rinks competing in the Japan Curling Championships later this year. In the eight-team qualifying round, Team Jentsch began by dropping their first game 7-1 to Team Kanai. They then won 8-5 over Yuri Nakajima (Miyota, JPN) and 9-3 over Wakaba Kawamura (Miyota, JPN) to secure their playoff spot with a 2-1 record. After defeating Team Jentsch, Team Kanai went on to beat Kawamura 7-1 and then defeated Nakajima 8-6 to secure a direct bye to the semifinal round. Other than Team Jentsch, the only other international team at the event was the Isabelle Ladouceur rink from Waterloo, Ontario. In Pool A, the Canadian team finished with a 1-2 record, but were able to advance to the playoff round. They were then, however, immediately defeated by the German team, ending their run in the quarterfinals. Other notable rinks were Sapporo's Sayaka Yoshimura who made the semifinals and Miyota's Arisa Kotani who went 0-3. |
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Matt Dunstone (Photo: Curling Canada) and his Winnipeg-based squad begin play at the CO-OP Tour Challenge in Nisku, Alta.
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