November 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.
