Einarson Reaches Karuizawa International Playoffs

Canada's Kerri Einarson (photo: Anil Mungal, GSOC) faces off against Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa in Saturday evening's semifinals. (6 pm Tokyo Time, 3 am CT) Einarson, and her team of Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Harris entered the weekend following a win Sunday in the WFG Masters in Oakville. Their travels following the Grand Slam event take the team directly to Japan and the sleepy mountain resort town of Karuizawa, hosts of the 1998 curling competition during the Nagano Winter Olympics. Located an hour's ride by bullet train from Tokyo, eight women's and eight men's teams returned for first time since December 2019 as foreign teams also returned to Japan. Einarson finished 2-1 in pool play, losing their opening game to Ikue Kitazawa of Nagano. Einarson bounced back with a 6-3 win over Sayaka Yoshimura of Sapporo, then followed up with a 9-7 win over Honoka Sasaki. All three Japanese teams made significant travel through Canada this season.