News National

Gushue headlines field for hometown KIOTI National in St. John’s

The Grand Slam of Curling is ready to rock St. John’s, N.L., for the KIOTI National.

The series announced Tuesday the list of teams and the draw schedule for its third event of the season, Nov. 26 to Dec. 1, at the Mary Brown’s Centre.

Event passes are sold out. Individual draw tickets for the remaining draws (Tuesday to Friday afternoon) are now available. Click here for more details.

The KIOTI National features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world.

That includes hometown heroes Team Brad Gushue, ranked No. 2 in the world. Gushue finished runner-up to world No. 1 Team Bruce Mouat in the HearingLife Tour Challenge and the Co-op Canadian Open to begin the Grand Slam of Curling season.

World No. 1 Team Rachel Homan leads the women’s division after winning the Co-op Canadian Open title Sunday. Homan defeated world No. 2 Team Silvana Tirinzoni in Sunday’s final.

Team Joël Retornaz and Team Eun-ji Gim will return as the defending champions after capturing the titles in Pictou County, N.S., last season. Retornaz’s victory was the second of three straight Grand Slam men’s titles while Gim made history by becoming the first South Korean club to capture a major championship in the series.

Teams were invited to the KIOTI National based on the World Curling Federation’s team rankings as of Oct. 22. Team Black received an invitation for winning the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 women’s title in October.

Both divisions are split into four pools of four teams for round-robin play. Each team plays four round-robin games: three against the teams within their pool and one crossover game based on seeding. The top eight teams overall will advance to the quarterfinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker draw will be played to determine the final playoff berths.

For a printer-friendly version of the draw schedule, CLICK HERE.

Date/TimeDrawABCD
Tuesday,
Nov. 26
8 a.m.1Whyte
vs.
Hösli
McEwen
vs.
Brunner
Y. Schwaller
vs.
Carruthers
Mouat
vs.
Craik
11:30 a.m.2Hasselborg
vs.
Lawes
Fujisawa
vs.
X. Schwaller
Gim
vs.
Yoshimura
Tirinzoni
vs.
Tabata
3 p.m.3Jacobs
vs.
Edin
Retornaz
vs.
Shuster
Dunstone
vs.
Ramsfjell
Gushue
vs.
Muskatewitz
6:30 p.m.4Kim
vs.
Wrana
Einarson
vs.
Black
Constantini
vs.
Ha
Homan
vs.
Carey
Wednesday,
Nov. 27
8:30 a.m.5Fujisawa
vs.
Yoshimura
Tirinzoni
vs.
Lawes
X. Schwaller
vs.
Tabata
Gim
vs.
Hasselborg
Noon6Homan
vs.
Black
Y. Schwaller
vs.
Muskatewitz
McEwen
vs.
Hösli
Whyte
vs.
Brunner
4 p.m.7Gushue
vs.
Carruthers
Constantini
vs.
Wrana
Einarson
vs.
Carey
Kim
vs.
Ha
8 p.m.8Mouat
vs.
Shuster
Dunstone
vs.
Edin
Retornaz
vs.
Craik
Jacobs
vs.
Ramsfjell
Thursday,
Nov. 28
8:30 a.m.9Einarson
vs.
Ha
Kim
vs.
Carey
Homan
vs.
Constantini
Wrana
vs.
Black
Noon10Retornaz
vs.
Ramsfjell
Jacobs
vs.
Craik
Mouat
vs.
Dunstone
Edin
vs.
Shuster
4 p.m.11Gim
vs.
X. Schwaller
Hasselborg
vs.
Tabata
Tirinzoni
vs.
Fujisawa
Lawes
vs.
Yoshimura
8 p.m.12Y. Schwaller
vs.
Brunner
Whyte
vs.
Muskatewitz
Gushue
vs.
McEwen
Hösli
vs.
Carruthers
Friday,
Nov. 29
8:30 a.m.13Dunstone
vs.
Shuster
Fujisawa
vs.
Lawes
Ramsfjell
vs.
Craik
Hasselborg
vs.
X. Schwaller
Noon14Constantini
vs.
Black
Mouat
vs.
Edin
Ha
vs.
Carey
Retornaz
vs.
Jacobs
4 p.m.15Tirinzoni
vs.
Yoshimura
Homan
vs.
Wrana
Gim
vs.
Tabata
Einarson
vs.
Kim
8 p.m.16McEwen
vs.
Carruthers
Gushue
vs.
Hösli
Brunner
vs.
Muskatewitz
Y. Schwaller
vs.
Whyte
Saturday,
Nov. 30
8:30 a.m.17Tiebreakers(if necessary)
Noon18Women’sQuarterfinals
4 p.m.19Men’sQuarterfinals
8 p.m.20Men’s & Women’sSemifinals
Sunday,
Dec. 1
12:30 p.m.21Women’sFinal
5 p.m.22Men’sFinal
Note: Draw times subject to change.