GSOC AMJ Masters

On Sunday, September 21, we began our first trip to Canada this season – a journey of four weeks. The opening event was the Grand Slam of Curling AMJ Masters in London, Ontario. Before the official practice on the Slam ice in the evening, we used the morning for an extra training session at a nearby curling club. Preparation went smoothly, and our excitement for the first Grand Slam of the season was high.

We started off strong with a win against Team Wang from China. On Tuesday, we faced Team Tabata in a close game, which we managed to secure in our favor. Wednesday morning was dedicated to training to stay in rhythm, and in the afternoon we defeated Team Fujisawa from Japan. On Thursday morning, we played our final round-robin match against Team Yoshimura and earned another victory, finishing the group stage with a perfect 4–0 record and qualifying directly for the quarterfinals.

On Saturday afternoon, we faced Team Schwaller from Switzerland and won after an extra end. Right afterward, we played the semifinal against Team Gim from Korea, which we were able to edge out in another tight battle. This put us into our first Slam final of the season. There we met Team Homan – a strong and very familiar opponent to us. In the second half, however, a few small mistakes crept in, which ultimately made the difference. We had to accept defeat and finished the tournament in an excellent second place.

We will take the many positives and valuable experiences with us to the next tournament in Toronto, which takes place from October 2 to 6.