12/11/2009
KARUIZAWA, Nagano, Japan – The Pacific Curling Championships 2009 gets underway in Karuizawa, Nagano today with the finals taking place a week later on Thursday 19 November. The full playing schedule for the event can be seen here: http://www.ac.auone-net.jp/~pcc2009/schedule.html Live scoring can been seen here: http://www.ac.auone-net.jp/~pcc2009/realtime.html And team standings here: http://www.ac.auone-net.jp/~pcc2009 follow links to the men’s and women’s competition. In the women’s competition teams from Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand will play to secure the two World Curling Federation Pacific Zone qualification places for the Ford World Women’s Curling Championships 2010 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. (20-28 March). Full women’s team line ups can be seen here: http://www.ac.auone-net.jp/~pcc2009/women.html In the men’s competition teams from Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea and New Zealand will vie for the top two spots that will win them places at the Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship 2010, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (3-11 April). Full men’s team line ups can be seen here: http://www.ac.auone-net.jp/~pcc2009/men.html 10/11/2009November brings that time of year when the Pacific Curling Championships take place for the Men and Women’s National teams from Asia and Oceania. This year Japan hosts the tournament in Karuizawa. You probably recall that it was Nagano, Japan that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics. The Olympic curling event in ‘98 was held in the town of Karuizawa – so the town has a fantastic curling history, including a curling Museum. The Pacific Championships is an important event, as it is the single qualifying tournament for the World Championships. The top 2 teams from each of the Men’s and Women’s draw earn their country a spot at the World Champs. For this year – the Men’s world’s are in Cortina, Italy and the Women’s is in Canada. The countries competing in Karuizawa will be: | Men | Women | | Australia | Australia | | New Zealand | New Zealand | | Chinese Taipei | South Korea | | South Korea | China | | China | Japan | | Japan | | I’ll keep this blog updated with results as soon as we can. Plus either Japanese or World Curling Federation posts results I’ll let you know those details as well to where to find them. The Aussie Men’s team are currently in Tokyo travelling via New Zealand. We stopped in our “home club” in Naseby to get some ice time and some practice. We caught up with a friend of ours, Grant Bean, who runs a lovely B&B. He was the photographer from the New Zealand Winter Games in August, and had a bunch of Photos from the event, below… Also of note – Fred the club manager in Naseby is finishing up there this week. Fred was there from Day 1 running the daily operations of the club, and introducing the many groups of tourists daily to the sport and giving them a go on the ice. Thanks for your great work Fred – everybody that came through always seem to have a great time and leave with a smile on their face.    
 
5/11/2008 As I write this post from Naseby, New Zealand in early summer, it is hailing. See below. 
Two days ago it was 28 degrees Celsius and we were all wearing shorts - the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We all complained we had too much clothing. Then it rained a couple of hours later. After a 25 degree day yesterday, we woke up at 6am to 5 cms of snow this morning. And it continued to snow until noon. See below.  
Also, interesting to note that we do indeed have a great peeler on the team. In our last game against Japan, Sean Hall had 14 shots in 7 ends. 13 of those were peels (with one board weight shot) and he made every one of them. So, with having such a great peeler on the team, Sean was also tasked with peeling the onions, carrots and potatoes for dinner :) 
Cheers
<Ian Palangio> 1/11/2008With the Pacific's happening in New Zealand this year, it is a reasonably short trip for us to travel - compared to other venues such as Beijing, Chuncheon, or Tokyo. This allows us to bring some comforts from home such as: - Electric toothbrushes;
- Projector to watch videos in big screen style on the wall;
- Steve's favourite coffee maker; and
- Our own Spa. Yes - we brought one.
In January this year we travelled to Karuizwawa, Japan for their International Tournament and we really enjoyed the natural hot springs they have in the area. Since Karuizawa is on the side of a volcano, there is several natural hot springs around, and we really liked using them to limber up in the morning, and help us relax and stretch at night. In fact... it was so good that Hugh decided to bring an inflatable portable spa to the Pacific's this year for the same use, and set it up on the huge deck at our rented house. After checking 123kg between Hugh and I on the flight (sorry Air New Zealand) we got it here, and had the first spa tonight. Fun.  
And speaking of having fun, below is a picture of Sean having some fun outside the Aucshen Hotel and Deli in Basel Switzerland.  
Cheers <Ian Palangio> Today, Saturday November 1st was meant to the be practice day for the Pacific's with each team getting 2 hours of practice time on the sheets. However, somebody this year dressed up as Murphy for Halloween. Overnight the ice-compressor at the Curling Club in Naseby did not turn off. The ice in the morning was super cold at around -15 degrees. Normal curling ice at Naseby is about -4.7 degrees. Because of the fast and radical temperature change - the ice literally shattered. So, it will take another 24 hours for the ice technicians to re-flood the ice, and prepare it again. This means that Practice is now shortened to 1 hour, and will happen early in the morning tomorrow (Sunday), followed by our first two games. It will be a long day - but will be for all teams. In the meantime - we'll enjoy our extra day off, and watch some movies back at our lodge. Cheers
<Ian Palangio> 28/10/2008This blog entry is written by guest writer Madeleine Wilson about their preparation for the Junior Pacific Curling Championships in January. Good luck girls! Cheers <Ian> The Junior Women's Team is preparing for the Junior Pacific Curling Championships and we have just finished their league competition in Queensland ranked 5th. The tournament is in Harbin, China - which is the Winter Olympic Training city for China, and where the China Men's and Women's team are based out of. 
Our team - Kirby, Victoria, Madeleine, Kelsey, and Emma are excited to represent Australia in Curling. 1/12/2007Now that I've returned to Australia, a lot of people are asking about the Pacific's and how we did. When I reply that we brought home the Silver Medal - most people don't know if that is good or bad :) In short - this is a fantastic result for us and the entire team is extremely chuffed with it. A silver is a good result in any International competition, but this is even more important for us when looking at the big picture - the Olympics. To get there it wasn't easy - we had to win our last two Round Robin games against Korea (by stealing one point in the last end) and New Zealand. We then had to beat New Zealand in 2 Semi-Final games (both games were one point games that went to extra ends). They were all good/close games that we scraped and clawed and managed to win. The top two teams at the Pacific's qualify for the World Championships in April 2008. So a silver or gold medal is necessary in our goal of playing in the World's this year. This will be our 4th year in a row representing Australia at the World Championships. It is the World Championships where countries earn Olympic Qualification points towards Vancouver 2010. I've already posted the entire Olympic Qualification process earlier in my blog on November 3, 2007. So while we currently are currently are tied for 8th in the qualification process - we needed to ensure we maintain or improve on that placing. This will require returning to the Worlds and gaining more points. So finishing in the top two at this Pacific's was our goal - and now we need to have a good tournament at the World Championships to earn more points! While winning the final would have been nice - China played a great game and deserved the win. If you look at the past 7 years since I've joined the team - Australia is the only country to be on the podium at each Pacifics. Since 2001 we have brought home 1 Bronze, 4 Silver and 2 Gold medals. Not bad for a competition where all the teams are very close in ability - especially since we always arrive at the Pacific's as the country with the least opportunity for preparation. Oh - and the Peking Duck was delicious too! 
Regards
<Ian Palangio> The World Curling Federation has published the tournament pages, statistics, and full results of the 2007 Pacific Curling Championships to their site. WCF Tournament Page - PCC 2007
BEIJING, China, 2007-11-19 -- 2007-11-24 
Cheers
<Ian Palangio> |
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