Canada’s Jacobs opens with victory over Japan at world men’s curling championship

After a successful run at the Montana’s Brier title earlier this month, Brad Jacobs and his Canadian team continued their winning streak at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask. In their opening game, Jacobs and his Calgary-based team defeated Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi with a score of 7-3 at the Temple Gardens Centre.

“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 Canadian team started with the hammer and blanked the first three ends to get used to the ice at the 4,200-seat venue. In the fourth end, Jacobs made a strategic move to score a deuce. Canada continued to apply pressure in the fifth end, forcing Japanese fourth Riku Yanagisawa to draw for one against three counters.

The Canadian foursome of Jacobs, Hebert, Marc Kennedy, and Brett Gallant extended their lead with three points in the sixth end. Jacobs executed a runback double in the seventh end to sit four, putting pressure on Japan to score only a single point. In the eighth end, Jacobs secured the win with a soft-weight pick for two more points.

“Once we get a handle on the ice, we know how we need to throw it,” Hebert commented. “We can get our draw weight down, our hit weight, and then we can manage some stones.”

In other early games, American Korey Dropkin narrowly defeated Italy’s Joel Retornaz, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller beat Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell, and Czechia’s Lukas Klima won against South Korea’s Hyojun Kim.

Canada will face reigning European champion Marc Muskatewitz of Germany in the next round. The round-robin play will continue through Friday, with the top six teams out of the 13-team field advancing to the weekend playoffs.

Gallant, Hebert, and Kennedy have all won world titles in the past, with Jacobs settling for silver in his previous appearance. The team’s experience and skill were evident in their performance against Japan.

The BKT World Men’s Curling Championship features top-ranked teams like Bruce Mouat of Scotland and seven-time champion Niklas Edin of Sweden. This event will determine the countries that will compete at the 2026 Milan Olympics, with combined results from the 2024 and 2025 worlds determining seven entries alongside the host Italy. A last-chance qualifier for the final two Olympic berths will be held in December in Kelowna, B.C.