The prestige from Vernon's annual top-rated curling event goes to those who came a long way for the game. 

Xiao Ming Xu of China and Bobae Kang of Korea claimed the first-prize cheques at the annual Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic, held Oct. 3-7 at the Vernon Curling Club.

Xu won the men's championship Monday afternoon, doubling up defending event champion Brent Pierce of New Westminster 6-3. The Chinese squad fell behind 1-0 after three ends but took control in the middle frames, scoring a deuce prior to the mid-game break for a 2-1 lead, and followed that up on the re-start by stealing three for a 5-2 bulge.

The defending champs never gave up, scoring one in the sixth and stealing another single in the seventh to cut the lead to 5-3, but Xu added one with the last rock in the eighth to pocket the victory.

Joining Xu for the win was third Qiang Zou, second Zhi Yu Wang, and lead Tianqi Guan. Pierce was backed by third Matthew Blandford and lead Nicholas Umbach, who were part of the 2023 winning foursome. Second Cody Johnston was new in 2024.

Pierce, who also won the event in 2006, qualified for the playoffs out of the A event, as did Shinya Abe of Japan, and Evan van Amsterdam of Edmonton. Xu was a B event qualifier, as was Cameron de Jong of Victoria and Jayden King of London, Ont.

The C event qualifiers included Penticton's Glenn Venance, with Vernon's Erik Colwell throwing second stones, and JaeBeom Lee of Korea.

In the quarterfinals, three matches ended with early handshakes, the other went down to the wire.

Xu dispatched De Jong 8-1 after six ends; Pierce won 8-2 over Lee, with the Koreans conceding after five ends; Abe scored three in each of the first, third and fifth ends for a 9-2 romp over Venance with handshakes coming in the sixth end. King took a 7-5 lead without hammer heading home in the eighth end, and was able to secure a 7-5 victory over van Amsterdam.

The semifinals were also finished ahead of schedule with both Xu and Pierce winning after seven ends. Xu defeated Abe 7-2 while Pierce doubled King 6-3.

The Vernon team of Rob Nobert lost their final qualifying match on Sunday, falling to China's Xueqing Fei 5-1. Norbert was supported by third Mitchell Kopytko, second Coburn Fadden, and lead Cameron Weir.

The Salmon Arm-Vernon squad of Shuswap brothers Kaiden Beck (skip) and Nolan Beck at second, Nolan Blaeser of Vernon at third, and Koen Hampshire of Vernon at lead, finished 1-3.

TJ Perepolkin, also from Vernon, finished the qualifying round winless.

With the women, Korea's Bobae Kang was a rock or two from going home empty handed from Vernon.

Instead, Kang's quartet got hot at the right time to take home the first prize cheque, capping off the bonspiel with a 3-2 win over Yujie Zhang of China, Sunday afternoon.

Kang and her team of third Jaehee Jeong, second Minseo Kim and lead Jisoo Kim used the hammer to score a single point in the eighth and final end for the victory.

The Kang rink had to play a tiebreaker late Saturday night against Victoria's Taylor Reese-Hansen squad to get into the playoffs Sunday, and eked out a 9-8 victory. The Koreans were rolling, scoring three in the first end, then led 4-1 after three, and picked up another trey in the fifth end to make it 7-3.

Reese-Hansen then executed a four-ender in the sixth end to tie the contest, and took an 8-7 lead with a steal of one in the seventh. That set the stage for Kang to use the hammer to score a deuce in the final end to earn a playoff spot.

In the quarterfinals, Kang defeatd Kristen Ryan of Maple Ridge 6-4 while Honoka Sasaki of Japan knocked out Youbeen Park of Korea, 6-4.

The top two rinks in the preliminary round, both from China, defending champion Rui Wang, along with Zhang, earned byes directly to the semifinals for finishing atop their divisions with 4-1 records.

Zhang defeated Sasaki 7-2 while Wang fell 6-3 to Kang.

The Vernon team of Ava Arndt finished fifth in Pool B, with a 1-4 record. Arndt had Vernon teammate Ivy Jensen at second, and Kamloops sisters Bethany Evans and Jillian Evans at third and lead, respectively.

Alyssa Kyllo of Vernon played second for Abbotsford's Sarah Wark, who finished at 1-4.