Sayaka Yoshimura


Sayaka Yoshimura is a Japanese curler from Sapporo. She is currently the skip of the Hokkaido Bank FORTIUS curling team.

Career

Yoshimura made her international debut for Japan at the 2006 Pacific Junior Curling Championships, playing lead for Team Japan, skipped by Megumi Kobayashi. They would win a silver medal. Yoshimura did not return to the Pacific Juniors until 2011, when she skipped Japan to a gold medal at the 2011 Pacific Junior Curling Championships, qualifying her nation for the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships. There, she led Japan to a 3-6 record in 8th place. Also that season, she skipped Japan at the 2011 Winter Universiade, finishing 4th place.
Yoshimura would once again lead Japan to a gold medal at the Pacific Juniors in 2012. She would then lead the team to a 5th place finish at the 2012 World Junior Curling Championships. She won another gold medal for Japan at the 2013 Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Championships. She would finally make the podium at the World Juniors, leading Japan to bronze medal at the 2013 World Junior Curling Championships. After the round robin, her team of Rina Ida, Risa Ujihara and Mao Ishigaki were in 2nd place with a 6-3 record. However, they lost both of their playoff games before beating the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game.
One year out of juniors, her team stuck together and played at the 2013 Winter Universiade, finishing in a disappointing 7th place. After the season, Yoshimura joined the Ogasawara rink. On the World Curling Tour, they would win two events, the Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic and the Hub International Crown of Curling. At the 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, they would pick up a bronze medal. This would ordinarily not be enough to qualify Japan for the World Championships, but because Japan was hosting the event, the team represented their country at the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship, Yoshimura's first Worlds. There, they placed sixth. In 2015, the team won another tour event, the Karuizawa International Curling Championship. The team played in the 2016 Continental Cup of Curling where they were part of the losing Team World squad. They played in the 2016 Humpty's Champions Cup, the team's first Grand Slam event, where they lost in the quarterfinal.
In 2018, Ogasawara left the team, leaving Yoshimura to take over as skip. The team would have immediate success on the tour, winning the 2018 Oakville Fall Classic. The team played in two Slams over the course of the 2018-19 season, playing in the 2018 National and 2019 Players' Championship, failing to qualify for the playoffs in either event.

Personal life

Yoshimura attended Sapporo International University.

Grand Slam record

Yoshimura set a record at the 2019 Masters, being the first women's team from Asia to make a Grand Slam final, excluding inactive events.
Event2014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–20
MastersDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPF
Tour ChallengeN/ADNPDNPDNPT2Q
The NationalN/ADNPDNPDNPQQ
Canadian OpenDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPQ
Players'DNPDNPDNPDNPQN/A
Champions CupN/AQFDNPDNPDNPN/A

Former events

Teams