Karuizawa International Curling Championships Explained

Karuizawa International Curling Championships
Organizer:Sports Community Karuizawa Club
Host City:Karuizawa, Japan
Arena:Karuizawa Ice Park
Men's Purse:¥ 1,500,000
Women's Purse:¥ 1,500,000
Current Men's Champion: Brad Gushue
Current Women's Champion: Ikue Kitazawa
Current:2023 Karuizawa International Curling Championships

The Karuizawa International Curling Championships is a curling bonspiel held annually since the Olympic Games in Nagano at the SCAP Karuizawa Arena in Kariuzawa, Japan. The bonspiel is held to commemorate the curling event at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first official curling event in the Olympic programme since the 1924 Winter Olympics. It is also held to help promote curling throughout Japan.[1] The event became a World Curling Tour event in 2014.

Format

Current format

A total of 24 teams (12 men's and 12 women's teams) are invited each year to participate in the championship. The teams play a two-pool round robin tournament with games of eight ends, and the top six teams of each gender play eight-end games in the final round.[1]

Previous format

Prior to 2013, a total of 16 teams (8 men's and 8 women's teams) were invited each year to participate in the championship. Five teams of each gender were chosen from foreign nations based on performances at the most recent World Curling Championships, while three teams were chosen from within Japan. The teams were chosen as follows:

width=100Men'swidth=100Women's
5 Foreign Teams
National Team
Selection Team
Selection Team

The eight teams of each gender played a round robin tournament with games of eight ends, and the top four teams of each gender played ten-end games in the final round.

Champions (1999-2009)

YearMen's winnerWomen's winner
1999 Cathy Borst
2000
2001
2002 Margaretha Lindahl
2003
2004
2005 Moe Meguro
2006 Crystal Rumberg
2007 Jo-Ann Rizzo
2008 Yukako Tsuchiya
2009 Manuela Kormann

Past Champions (since 2010)

YearWinning skipRunner-up skip
2010[2] (Chris Busby) (Yusuke Morozumi)
(Hollie Nicol) (Stina Viktorsson)
(Yusuke Morozumi) (Tyler George)
(Jennifer Jones) (Satsuki Fujisawa)
Selection (Yusuke Morozumi) (Colin Thomas)
(Laura Crocker) (Silvana Tirinzoni)
Yusuke Morozumi
Ayumi Ogasawara
Seong Se-hyeon
2015 Pat Simmons
2016 David Murdoch
Margaretha Sigfridsson
Chiaki Matsumura
2018
Sayaka Yoshimura
2019[3] [4] Niklas Edin
Satsuki Fujisawa
2020–2021 Cancelled
2022[5] [6] Yusuke Morozumi
Kerri Einarson
2023[7] [8] Hayato Sato
Kim Eun-jung

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Karuizawa International Curling Championship – Event information. Karuizawa Curling Club. 8 April 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130724063938/http://www.karuizawaclub.ne.jp/icurling/en/info/index.cfm. 24 July 2013. dead.
  2. Web site: Double Gold! Canada sweeps at Karuizawa International Curling Championship. Canadian Curling Association. 10 March 2010.
  3. Web site: 2019 Karuizawa International - Men's. CurlingZone. December 22, 2019.
  4. Web site: 2019 Karuizawa International - Women's. CurlingZone. December 22, 2019.
  5. Web site: 2022 Karuizawa International - Men's. CurlingZone. December 18, 2022.
  6. Web site: 2022 Karuizawa International - Women's. CurlingZone. December 18, 2022.
  7. Web site: 2023 Karuizawa International - Men's. CurlingZone. November 28, 2023.
  8. Web site: 2023 Karuizawa International - Women's. CurlingZone. November 28, 2023.