OLDS, Alta. – Call it the Team Kerri Einarson Revenge Tour.
Gimli’s Mann team went out of the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup playoffs on Saturday and won three straight games in a row in the final of the season at the Pinty Grand Slam Curling Slam to extend their campaign by another day and secured a place in the women’s final on Sunday.
Einarson defeated South Korea’s Yun-Jung Kim 7-4 in the only tiebreak, defeated defending champion Rachel Homan of Ottawa 5-3 in the quarterfinals, and then finished the marathon with a 6-4 victory over Swedish team Anna Hasselborg.
It was a rematch, but no repeat, of the Princess Auto Players’ Championship women’s final three weeks ago, when Ainarson reversed the script and called a checkmate in the match, making one of his trademarks double outs to drive Hasselborg out of the stones in the eighth end.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Einarson will face South Korea’s Eun-Ji Gim, which eliminated Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 5-4 and is aiming to become the first Asian-based team to win the top-level title in series.
Min-Ji Kim, who now plays third in the team, skipped her previous team to the 2019 Tour Challenge Tier 2 title and used her promotion to reach the Meridian Canadian Open final in 2020, finishing second. to Hasselborg.
Gim beat Einarson 7-6 during a game of billiards on Friday.
Meanwhile, Brad Gushu of St Johns, the Netherlands, will face Calgary’s Kevin Coe in the men’s final.
Gushue beat Sweden’s Niklas Edin 6-5 in extra time as Koe beat Sault Ste’s Brad Jacobs. Marie, Ont., 4-3.
It was the last game for the Jacobs team, and their omission decided to stop curling for the men next season.
For Gushue, it was also a matter of revenge, as he finally decided One this season after five consecutive defeats. Similarly, Koe defeated Gushue earlier this week during a game of billiards to make a loss of eight games against the 12-time men’s Grand Slam champion.
Three-time reigning world champion Tim Tirinzoni is also saying goodbye to the leadership of Melanie Barbezzat and the second Esther Neuenschwander, as both players are retiring from the sport.
NEXT
The men’s final opens the Championship on Sunday at 12:00 ET / 10:00 local time with coverage in Sportsnet 360, followed by the women’s final at 15:30 ET / 13:30 local time on Sportsnet. Broadcast the two finals online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (International).
Tickets are available at the Olds Sportsplex box office and online at champions.goigniter.com.
NOTES
The KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup is the fourth and final event of the 201-22 Pinty Grand Slam Curling Slam, featuring 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams that won the best titles on the tour to qualify. … A $ 210,000 combined prize bag is ready to grab, with the winning teams earning $ 25,000 plus seats to next year’s KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup. P Pinty’s 2022-23 Grand Slam curling campaign kicks off with Boost National, Oct. 4-9, at Memorial Gardens in North Bay, Ont. Full event passes are now available for all six events for next season, visit thegrandslamofcurling.com/tickets for more information.
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