Mix of veterans and youth take men’s crown
A 15-year-old, playing second, is among the big winners at the Japanese national championships in Kitami.
Riku Yanagisawa and his Karuizawa foursome defeated Hayato Sato 11-7 in the 2022 men’s final, reversing the result from Saturday’s Page playoff 1 versus 2 match.
The Nagano foursome opened with a deuce, and added a three-count in third end for a 5-2 lead. With the score 5-4, Yanagisawa scored another pair and then stole a deuce to lead 9-4.
Yanagisawa led the way with an 8-0 round-robin won/loss record before their initial playoff loss. Sato’s Sapporo foursome followed at 7-1.
Yanagisawa skips a mix of veterans and youth. The skip is 20 years old, while third Tsuyoshi “Yama” Yamaguchi is 37. Their second thrower, Takero Yamamoto is—remarkably—only 15 years of age. The lead is Satoshi Koizumi.
“Yama” competed for Japan at 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang and has become quite popular in recent years. First he posted popular “Curl Anywhere” travel and workout videos on social media, then came an appearance in the 2020 Curling Cares fundraising calendar. Next came a popular YouTube channel, followed by TV curling commentator gigs for the Olympics and world championships.
“This feels really good, because I changed my team four years ago and we couldn’t win,” said Yamaguchi. “It’s been a very hard time in the past few years.
“I’m so glad to be champion at the Japan nationals.”
The men’s final was played on Sunday morning, while the women’s final scored a coveted afternoon television start time.
Team Satsuki Fujisawa of Kitami, the recent Olympic silver medalists, were the winners with an emphatic 7-3 victory over the Ikue Kitazawa foursome from Nagano.
Tied 1-1 after three ends, Fujisawa scored a pair of points in the fourth end and added another in the sixth, to open up a 5-2 lead.
Fujisawa was backed by Chinami Yoshida, Yumi Susuki and Yurika Yoshida.
In a nice touch, both teams celebrated together as the match concluded.
Fujisawa led the field with a 7-1 won/loss record before winning the Page playoff 1 versus 2 game over Momho Tabata of Sapporo (6-2) on Saturday. Kitazawa, also 6-2, had eliminated Sayaka Yoshimura’s Sapporo foursome (4-4) in the Page 3 versus 4 matchup.
In addition to the trophy, both winning teams also took home a one-ton barrel of Hokkaido Yumeprika rice.
