 Park Jong-duk (Photo: Curling1spoon) and his team representing Gangwon Province have won the national championship for the first time since 2016. By: Cameron Sallaj The 2023 Korean Curling Championships were held from June 22 to 30 at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea, the curling venue during the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. Six men's teams competed in the three round championship that was dominated by one team. Park Jong-duk and his team of Jeong Yeong-seok, Oh Seung-hoon, and Seong Ji-hoon, representing Gangwon Province, were unstoppable en route to claiming the provinces first championship title since 2016. The Gangwon rink defeated all five of the other competing rinks in the first round to advance to the second round as the number one seeds. This included a 5-4 victory over 2021 national champions Gyeongbuk Sports Council (Kim Soo-hyuk) and a 10-9 win over reigning champions Seoul City Hall, led by Jeong Byeong-jin. Into the second round of the event, Gangwon Province again posted a perfect 3-0 record against the other three remaining rinks. They downed Bongmyeong High School (Moon Hyeon) 11-2 before narrowly escaping Gyeongbuk Sports Council 8-7. Already qualified for the third round, they took down Seoul City Hall once again, this time 7-2. The third and final round of the championship was held in a best-of-five format, however, it included the results from the first and second rounds between the two competing rinks. Because Gangwon Province had already beaten Seoul City Hall twice, they only needed one more victory to claim the national title. The final got off to a good start for Gangwon Province, who immediately put two on the board with the hammer in the first end. They then stole a point in the second end to get out to a 3-0 start. Seoul City Hall fought back with a strong third end to keep themselves alive. Facing one, Jeong executed an angle runback to give his team three points and tie the match. After a single by Gangwon in the fourth, the Seoul rink blanked the fifth end with Gangwon Province leading 4-3 at the break. The turning point in the match happened in the sixth end. Facing four Gangwon counters, Jeong Byeong-jin needed a nose hit to count a single and tie the game. However, his rock overcurled and only removed one opponent's stone while the shooter spun out of the rings. This resulted in a steal of three for Gangwon, and left Seoul City Hall with much to do to rescue the match. The defending champions got a point back in the seventh end to get within three, but it wasn't enough as Gangwon Province blanked the eighth and ninth ends before running them out of rocks in the tenth end to secure the national championship. This is the first time that the Gangwon Province curling team has won the national title since the 2016-17 season. During that year, the team, led by Kim Soo-hyuk, finished third at the 2016 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, not advancing to the 2017 World Championship. Before that season, Gangwon had won the national title for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016. In 2015, they won gold at the Pacific-Asia Championship and went onto an eleventh-place finish at the 2016 World Men's Curling Championship with a 2-9 record. Park Jong-duk, Jeong Yeong-seok, Oh Seung-hoon, and Seong Ji-hoon will represent Korea at the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships from October 29 to November 4. If they finish within the top five, they will qualify for the 2024 World Men's Curling Championship, scheduled to be held March 30 to April 7 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Watch the replay of the 2023 Korean Curling Championships final between Gangwon Province (Park Jong-duk) and Seoul City Hall (Jeong Byeong-jin): |
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