News Tour Challenge

PARADISE, N.L. — It was a dream come true for Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland as she earned her first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title in stunning fashion. 

Tirinzoni rallied with a deuce in the seventh and stole two points in the eighth end to upset Ottawa’s Rachel Homan 6-5 and win the inaugural Tour Challenge title during a foggy Tier 1 women’s final at the Paradise Double Ice Complex. 

Homan had to draw her last rock of the game through the haze and rubbed and rolled off of one of Tirinzoni’s counters.

“I was dreaming about this for such a long time,” said Tirinzoni, who earned $23,000 CAD. “Now that it actually came true it’s just a great, great feeling. It’s hard to believe, actually. It was a tough week and not always easy ice conditions but we just found a way to win and we are so happy.” 

Tirinzoni, third Manuela Siegrist, second Esther Neuenschwander, and lead Marlene Albrecht — along with coach Gerry Adam of Yorkton, Sask. — also qualified for the second new Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, the season-ending Champions Cup, running April 26 to May 1, 2016, in Sherwood Park, Alta. 

“When we set up our schedule we already put it in so we said, ‘Okay we have to win a Grand Slam this year,'” Tirinzoni said with a smile. “We’re just happy that we won the first one so we now know we can go.”

Homan entered the final undefeated at 6-0 and opened the scoring with a three-ender in the second. The two-time Masters champion Homan forced Tirinzoni to a single in the third and hit and and stuck for a point in the fourth to lead 4-1 at the halftime break.

After Tirinzoni was held to another single in five, Homan looked to score a deuce in six, but her last rock over-curled and crashed on a guard and she had to settle for one point to lead 5-2 heading into the dramatic finale.

Einarson rolls through Tier 2

Winnipeg’s Team Einarson completed an undefeated 7-0 run through the Tier 2 women’s division with an 8-2 victory over Regina’s Team Eberle. It’s the first championship for skip Kerri Einarson, third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe, and lead Kristin MacCuish. 

“It’s just an amazing feeling to finally win a final after so many years of losing a lot of finals and a lot of quarterfinals and semifinals,” said Einarson, who has finished runner-up at the past two Manitoba provincial championships. “To finally win one is great.”

Team Einarson earned a promotion to the Masters, running Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 in Truro, N.S.

“It’s usually as we qualify, it’s like pressure is off of us but we just kept it on us and we’re like, ‘No, we’re going to go for everything,'” Einarson said. “We wanted to be in Nova Scotia with those top teams so it’s awesome. It’s going to be a fabulous time.” 

Einarson scored two in the opening end and stole one in the second to jump out 3-0. The rinks alternated singles through three and four as Einarson maintained the three-point advantage. Team Eberle, skipped by spare Amber Holland, settled for a point in five and Einarson got three in the sixth after a close measurement. Holland faced three with her final shot in seven but hit and stuck to give up one and shook hands.

Holland, the 2008 Players’ Championship winner, filled in for skip Chantelle Eberle, who sustained an ACL injury over the summer. 

The inaugural Tour Challenge concludes with the men’s finals featuring home-province hero Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., against Calgary’s Kevin Koe in the Tier 1 and Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C., versus Mark Kean of Stoney Creek, Ont., in the Tier 2. Watch live on Sportsnet at 6 p.m. NT (4:30 p.m. ET).