Italians Win Grand Slam Tour Challenge

In preparation for hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, host-Italy looks strong with Joel Retornaz (photo: Anil Mungal, GSOC) winning a second Grand Slam title. Retornaz of Trentino, Italy with Amos Mosaner at third, Sebastiano Arman and Mattia Giovanella on the front end won 4-3 over Brendan Bottcher (Calgary, AB) in the Final of the HearingLife Tour Challenge haeld at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Retornaz adds the Grand Slam Tour Challenge as their second Slam title, after winning the WFG Masters last season.. Italy not normally a country where curling has been strong, but it was Retornaz who was part of the 2006 rebirth of curling when Pinerolo hostined the curling competition for the 2006 Winter Olympic in Turin. Retornaz has been the veteran leadership of the program, the team building over the years to a point they were no longer the "easy" game on the schedule. And now, the 2x Grand Slam champion slides into #2 on the World Curling Federation World Team Rankings, and is focused on winning Gold at home in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026. Bottcher, the team holding the #1 ranking overall, reached Sunday's final with a 6-3 win over Brad Gushue of St. John's on Saturday evening in the semifinals, while Retornaz bested Scotland's Ross Whyte 6-3. Retornaz start with hammer, a benefit of their 3-1 record in the preliminary round, to Bottcher's 2-2 record. The Italian side scored a single in the first end, then played strong defense holding Bottcher to a single point in the fourth end after two blanks. Retornaz scored one in the fifth end, than after another blank, stole one in the seventh end to lead 4-1 into the eighth end. Bottcher got the field multi-point score of the game to force an extra end, but it was Retornaz scoring one to win 4-3. In the quarterfinals, Retornaz defeated Niklas Edin (Karlstad, SWE) 6-2, while Whyte defeated Matt Dunstone (Winnipeg, MB) 8-3, Gushue defeated Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg, MB) 7-2, and Bottcher defeated Yannick Schwaller (Geneve, SUI) 5-3. In their opening game, Retornaz defeated Riku Yanagisawa (Karuizawa, JPN) 5-4, then won 4-2 against Winnipeg's Carruthers and 8-2 against Edin. Retornaz went on to lose 6-4 against Bruce Mouat (Stirling, Scotland) in their final qualifying round match. Retornaz heads to Sault Ste. Marie next weekend for the Soo Curlers Fall Classic, presented by KIOTI Tractors, where every game will be available thround CurlingZone's Youtube channel.