 Gyeonggi Province's Team Gim Eun-ji (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) look to defend their national title at the Korean Curling Championships as the event gets underway Sunday in Uijeongbu. By: Cameron Sallaj While the 2023-24 curling season drew to a close just over a month ago, the 2024-25 season has already kicked off with the Australian National Championships taking place over the month of May. Now into June, it's the Korean Championships that are set to run June 9-17 at the Uijeongbu Curling Stadium in Uijeongbu, the same city that will play host to the 2025 World Women's Curling Championship in March. The women's side of the event will once again see a tight three team race as the 2021, 2022 and 2023 championship rinks are back looking to pick up another title. Leading the field at the 2024 event are the defending champions Gyeonggi Province's Gim Eun-ji rink who are playing in their hometown. The team, comprised of skip Gim, third Kim Min-ji, second Kim Su-ji, lead Seol Ye-eun and alternate Seol Ye-ji are coming off the best curling season ever by a Korean squad, finishing the 2023-24 season ranked third in the world. After securing the 2023 national title last June, Team Gim went on a tear on tour, defending their title at the Autumn Gold Curling Classic and picking up another win at the International Bernese Ladies Cup. In November, the team won seven straight games to claim the KIOTI National Grand Slam title, becoming the first Korean team to win a Slam. Representing Korea on the international stage, Gyeonggi Province lost just one game en route to claiming gold at the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships. This qualified them for the 2024 World Women's Curling Championship in Sydney, Nova Scotia where they continued their winning ways with a 10-2 round robin record. After losing to Canada's Rachel Homan in the semifinal, the Koreans won the bronze medal 6-3 over Italy's Stefania Constantini. Coming off this historic season, Team Gim is looking to continue their strong play by defending their national title for the chance to go on and represent Korea at the World Championship in their hometown. It will not be an easy road for Gim, however, as they will have to go through a seven-game round robin before a page playoff system to decide the winner. Among their seven competitors are two main challengers in Gangneung and Chuncheon City Hall. Gangneung City Hall's Team Kim Eun-jung last won the national title in 2021 and are looking to get back on top of the podium for the first time in three years. Kim, along with teammates Kyeong-ae, Cho-hi, Seon-yeong and Yeong-mi rose to international stardom at the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang where they won the silver medal. Four years later, they secured another silver medal at the 2022 World Championship, the last time they represented Korea internationally. With their wealth of experience, Team Kim poses a strong threat to dethrone Gim's title. This past season, the Gangenung based team won five tour titles and rose twenty spots in the world rankings to finish seventh. The third contender for the women's title is Chuncheon's Team Ha Seung-youn who surprised many when they upset both Kim and Gim to win the 2022 national title. Backed up by Kim Hye-rin, Yang Tae-i, Kim Su-jin and Park Seo-jin, Ha took over the Chuncheon City Hall team after Kim Min-ji left to join Gyeonggi Province. Three months after the move, the team defeated their former skip in the final of the 2022 national championship, earning them their first title since 2018. Though they showed promise at the 2022 Pan Continental with a silver medal finish, they failed to qualify at the 2023 World Championship following a disappointing 5-7 record. Although they enter the tournament as the dark horses of the three contenders, Team Ha is in the same position they found themselves in when they captured the national title two years ago. If they can manage to get by Kim and Gim again they may find themselves sporting the Korean jerseys once again. The 2024 Korean Curling Championships run June 9-17 at the Uijeongbu Curling Stadium in Uijeongbu. All games from the event will be broadcast on the Curling1spoon YouTube channel. |
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World number three ranked Gyeonggi Province's Gim Eun-ji (Photo: Curling1spoon) defend their national title in a thrilling extra end final Monday in Uijeongbu.
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