The Australian curling team has finished in the bronze medal position in the Karuizawa International Curling Championships.

Up against teams from Japan, Canada, New Zealand, China and Norway, the team of Hugh Millikin, Ian Palangio, John Theriault, Steve Johns and Chris Johns finished the round robin section of the tournament with an impressive 5-2 record.

They lost to China in the semi-final, but then convincingly beat a strong Japanese National Team to win the bronze medal match. 
 
The high quality field included a top 10 team from Canada, Norway’s second team and the NZ national team.

The Australian men’s curling team is currently ranked ninth and has been working towards qualifying for the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010.

Last year the team finished sixth at the World Championships, but unfortunately didn’t qualify for this year’s titles.

As a result, their chances of making it to Vancouver 2010 are now out of their hands, and depend on Denmark and Finland finishing in the bottom positions at the 2009 Championships in April.

“We had some minor player changes for this tournament with training squad players John Theriault and Chris Johns stepping up and playing well,” said team skip Hugh Millikin.

“We’re still hopeful of a berth in the Winter Olympics in 2010, but it’s out of our hands.”

“We now need a bit of luck to qualify.”

“We’ve appreciated the encouragement from our families, employers and the OWI.”