Over this past week, Oakville’s Sixteen Mile Sports Complex hosted the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling Masters for professional Curling players from all around the world.
Last year, Oakville hosted the event also and the winner from the Men's side was Scotlands Bruce Mouat and his team and on the Women’s side, the winner in 2021 was Tracy Fleury and her team from Ontario.
This year, Tracy was not the lead skipper of her own team. She moved on to join Canadian Gold Medalist Rachel Homan and her incredible team.
The three teams that most fans were looking at on the woman’s side were Rachel Homan’s team, Kerri Einarson’s team, and Jennifer Jones’ team as three teams to potentially win the tournament.
Homan’s team beat team Hasselborg 5-2 in the quarter-finals to move on to the semi-finals. Einarson’s team narrowly beat team Carey by a score of 5-4 to also move on to the semi-finals.
Team Jones was not as lucky in their quarter-final matchup as they lost their match 9-6 to team Gim and were knocked out of the tournament.
In the semi-finals, Team Einarson took on Team Peterson for a chance to go on to the finals. Team Einarson played a great game and won by a score of 8-3 and booked their ticket to the finals.
Team Homan took on Team Gim in their Semi-final game and tried to book their ticket to the finals. They also won their game but by a closer score of 5-3 and Homan and Einarson were ready to square off in the finals.
Einarson and Homan played a match for the ages that was so close throughout the entire game. The game was tied at the end of the final frame and the game went to an extra end.
Both squads played a great frame, but Team Einarson got the final point and won the game and won the Women’s side of the tournament.
On the Men's side of the Tournament, all eyes were on Team Mouat as the Scottish team looked to win this tournament again.
Two Canadian teams also made it to the playoff rounds with Team Bottcher from Calgary and Team Gushue from Newfoundland.
Team Bottcher and Team Gushue played each other in the Quarter-finals and Bottcher won by a close score of 5-4.
In the other games, Team Schwaller of Switzerland played Team Retornaz of Italy and Team Retornaz won 6-2.
Team Ramsfjell of Norway took on Team Edin of Sweden and Team Ramsfjell won by a score of 7-3.
Then in the final Quarter-final match, Team Mouat of Scotland took on Team Whyte also from Scottland and the 2021 Champions won 5-3.
In the Semi-Finals the lone Canadian Team Bottcher lost to Team Retornaz by a 3-1 score and Team Mouat won handily over Team Ramsfjell by a 7-1 score.
In the Finals, Team Mouat looked to reclaim their victory from last year but Team Retornaz had different plans as they won by a score of 6-2 to capture their first-ever Grand Slam of Curling title.
Congratulations to all the tournament athletes!