By TERRY PUGH
Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Glarus, Switzerland captured the championship trophy at the Aly Jenkins Mixed Doubles Memorial Bonspiel in Martensville on Sunday, November 23, edging the team of Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt of Brisbane, Austrlia 5-4 in the eighth end of a a back-and-forth nail-biter final.
The Perret-Gill team are ranked 24th overall in the international standings. The Gill-Hewitt team, meanwhile, are ranked first overall internationally, according to curlingzone.com.
The championship final match-up marked the culmination of three days of international-calibre curling at the Martensville Curling Club from November 21-23. Proceeds from the event will go towards the Sandra Schmirler Foundation.
The Aly Jenkins Mixed Doubles Memorial Bonspiel, featured 18 teams from Canada, Australia, Finland, South Korea, China, Switzerland, and Poland. Competitors were looking not only to collect a chunk of the $20,000 prize moneym, but also to solidify their world rankings and perhaps qualify for the Olympics.
The Perret-Rios duo advanced to the championship final with a 9-0 win over Adela Walczak and Andrzej Augustyniak of Lodz, Poland in a semi-final playoff match; after winning 9-7 over Tori Koana and Go Aoki of Yamanashi, Japan in the quarter-finals. Perret-Rios went 4-0 in the 18-team qualifying round.
The Gill-Hewitt team qualified for the championship final after winning 6-1 against Zixuan Ye and Sen Yu of Beijing, China in the semi-finals, and downing Seonyeong Kim and Yeongseok Jeong of Gangneung, South Korea 8-7 in the quarter-finals. Gill-Hewitt also finished the round-robin with an unbeaten 4-0 record.
The strongest performance by a Saskatchewan team was posted by the duo of Melissa Remeshylo and Dylan Derksen, both members of the Martensville Curling Club. The pair finished the round-robin with a record of three wins and one loss, which qualified them for a playoff berth. They dropped a 6-3 decision in their quarter-final matchup to the high-powered duo from Poland, Adela Waalczak and Andrzej Augustyniak.
In the other quarter-final match-up, Zixuan Ye and Sen Yu of China edged Nancy Martin and Steve Laycock of Saskatoon by a score of 8-7.
In addition to Remeshylo-Derksen and Martin-Laycock, the tournament featured several Canadian teams, including:
* Jessica Lang and Matt Lang of Clavet,
* Sherry Just and Kyle Cherpin of Prince Albert,
* Alison Ingram and Cole Tenetuik of North Battleford,
* Shelby Lamontagne and Grady LaMontagne of Moose Jaw,
* Shawna Simpson and Tyler Derksen of Martensville,
* Jill Springer and Garret Springer of Regina,
* Ashley Kalk and Craig MacAlpinen of Edmonton,
* Cheryl Damen and Tyler Van Amsterdam of Calgary,
Other international teams included:
* Lotta Immonen and Markus Sipila of Finland;
* Chiaki Matsumara and Yasumasa Tanida of Japan.