After a triumphant run to a Montana’s Brier title earlier this month, Brad Jacobs and his Canadian teammates picked up where they left off Saturday in their opening game at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Jacobs and his Calgary-based team defeated Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi 7-3 in the first round-robin draw at the Temple Gardens Centre.
WATCH | Canada’s Brad Jacobs opens men’s curling worlds with victory over Japan:
Brad Jacobs and his Alberta-based rink defeated Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi 7-3 in their opening game at the world men’s curling championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
“We were riding the hot hand and really riding the energy of the crowd out there,” said Canadian lead Ben Hebert. “It got us going.”
The host side opened with hammer and blanked the first three ends as players got used to the ice in the 4,200-seat venue.
Jacobs sunk a stone under a pair of guards in the fourth end to open the scoring with a deuce. Canada kept the pressure on in the fifth by forcing Japanese fourth Riku Yanagisawa to draw for one through a port against three counters.
The Canadian foursome of Jacobs, Hebert, Marc Kennedy and Brett Gallant pulled away with three points in the sixth end. Yanagisawa missed a double-takeout and Jacobs made the open draw.
“Awesome job by the guys,” Jacobs said. “They played great in front of me. We settled in nicely. We got a deuce and a force and a three.
“We were gripping the broom a little less tight from that point on, which was good.”
The Canadian skip delivered a runback double to sit four in the seventh end and forced Japan to another single. Jacobs followed with a soft-weight pick to add two more points in the eighth.
“Once we get a handle on the ice, we know how we need to throw it,” Hebert said. “We can get our draw weight down, our hit weight and then we can manage some stones.”
In other early games, American Korey Dropkin edged Italy’s Joel Retornaz 7-6, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller topped Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell 7-4, and Czechia’s Lukas Klima beat South Korea’s Hyojun Kim 6-5.
Up next
Canada will play reigning European champion Marc Muskatewitz of Germany in the evening draw.
Round-robin play continues through Friday. The top six teams in the 13-team field will reach the weekend playoffs.
Gallant was on the last Canadian team to win this event, taking gold eight years ago in Edmonton on a squad skipped by Brad Gushue.
Hebert and Kennedy won world titles with Kevin Martin (2008) and Kevin Koe (2016) while Jacobs settled for silver in his lone appearance in 2013. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based skip took Olympic gold at the Sochi Games the following year.
“There’s four great throwers and they have a lot of experience,” said Japanese coach Bob Ursel. “It’s one of many tough teams here this week.”
Top-ranked Bruce Mouat of Scotland and seven-time champion Niklas Edin of Sweden are among the headliners at the nine-day competition.
Edin beat Gushue in last year’s final in Schaffhausen, Switzerland while Mouat topped the St. John’s skip in the 2023 final in Ottawa.
This event will determine most of the countries that will compete at the 2026 Milan Olympics.
Combined results from the 2024 and ’25 worlds will determine seven entries that will join host Italy. A last-chance qualifier for the final two Olympic berths will be held in December in Kelowna, B.C.
