Italy’s Joel Retornaz and Japan’s Miyu Ueno claimed the men’s and women’s championship respectively at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown in Swift Current on Sunday evening.
Retornaz and his rink of third Stefano Gilli, second Andrea Gillia and lead Alberto Pimpini defeated Saskatoon’s Tyler Tardi 3-1 to complete an undefeated run to the men’s title.
Ueno, third Asuka Kanai, second Yui Ozeki and lead Yui Ueno prevailed 5-3 over Ikue Kitazawa in an all-Japan women’s final.
As the score would indicate, there wasn’t much to give between Retornaz and Tardi’s Green Machines rink, which includes third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh.
Retornaz blanked the first end and picked up one in the second, after which Tardi put up a pair of blanks before scoring one in the fifth. Retornaz regained the lead with one in the sixth and then had a pivotal steal in the seventh to go up 3-1. Tardi couldn’t find the deuce he needed in the final end and Retornaz had his perfect run complete.
Retornaz defeated Calgary’s Kevin Koe 7-1 in the quarter-final and Edmonton’s Evan Van Amsterdam 6-5 in the semifinal. Tardi’s run to the final included an 8-5 win over Martensville’s Dylan Derksen and 7-4 victory over Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald.
Ueno used deuces in the third and fifth ends to take a 4-2 lead over Kitazawa, third Seina Nakajima, second Minori Suzuki and lead Hasumi Ishigooka, after which the teams exchanged single points before Ueno ran Kitazawa out of rocks in the final end.
Ueno defeated Edmonton’s Serena Gray-Withers 5-4 to open her playoff run and then downed A side qualifier KyeonGae Kim from Korea in the semifinal. Kitazawa scored one in the eighth to defeat Victoria’s Kayla MacMillan in her quarter-final before rolling past Korea’s EunJung Kim 9-2 in the semi.
You can check out all the action from the playoffs on the CurlingZone YouTube page.
