Switzerland’s Tirinzoni edges Ottawa’s Homan in women’s Tour Challenge final

Rachel Homan (Facebook photo)

PARADISE, N.L. – Rachel Homan couldn’t extend her perfect run at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Tour Challenge.

Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni scored two in the eighth end to edge the Ottawa skip 6-5 in the Tier 1 women’s final on Sunday.

Homan got out to an early 3-0 lead in the second end and was up 5-2 before Tirinzoni came back with deuces in the seventh and eighth ends to take the victory.

Homan went undefeated at the inaugural Grand Slam of Curling event until losing to Tirinzoni in the final. She posted a 4-0 round-robin record to top the leaderboard, downed Scotland’s Eve Muirhead in the quarter-finals and beat EunJung Kim of South Korea in the semis.

Tirinzoni was playing in her first career Grand Slam of Curling final. She went 2-2 in the round-robin stage before beating Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque and Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., in the quarter-finals and semifinals, respectively.

In the men’s final, Calgary’s Kevin Koe needed an extra end to topple Brad Gushue 6-5.

Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L., forced the extra end with a single in the eighth to tie the draw at 5-5. Neither skip led by more than one point, with Gushue opening the scoring with a single in the second end.

Koe downed American John Shuster 9-2 in Saturday’s semifinal, while Gushue defeated Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 5-3.

Koe went 3-1 through round robin play, with his only loss coming in his opening draw against Toronto’s John Epping. He won six straight draws to capture the men’s crown.