Nkeirouka Ezekh
Нкеирука Езех
Curler
Ezekh in 2009
Born (1983-10-17) October 17, 1983
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Team
Curling clubMoskvitch CC,
Moscow, RUS
SkipNkeirouka Ezekh
ThirdDiana Margaryan
SecondAlina Borodulina
LeadAnastasia Kilchevskaya
AlternateOlga Antonova
Mixed doubles
partner		Alexey Stukalskiy
Curling career
Member Association Russia
World Championship
appearances		15 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
European Championship
appearances		17 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017)
Olympic
appearances		4 (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
Medal record
Women's Curling
Representing  Russia
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2017 Beijing
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Saint John
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Sapporo
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Swift Current
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2006 Basel
Gold medal – first place 2012 Karlstad
Gold medal – first place 2015 Esbjerg
Silver medal – second place 2014 Champéry
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Moscow
Winter Universiade
Gold medal – first place 2003 Tarvisio
Silver medal – second place 2007 Torino
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Harbin
European Junior Challenge
Gold medal – first place 2005 Copenhagen

Nkeirouka Khilarievna "Kira" Ezekh (Russian: Нкеирука (Кира) Хилариевна Езех; born October 17, 1983) is a Russian curler. She currently skips her own team out of Saint Petersburg. The team won the 2022 Russian Curling Championships.[1]

She has competed at fifteen World Women's Curling Championships and seventeen European Curling Championships. She won a silver medal at the 2017 World Women's Curling Championship, as well as three bronze medals from 2014 to 2016 as part of the Anna Sidorova rink. She has won the European Championship three times (2006, 2012, 2015) as well as a silver and bronze medal in 2014 and 2011 respectively. Ezekh represented Russia four times at the Winter Olympic Games in 2002 2006, 2010 and 2014, with her best finish coming in 2006 where her team finished in sixth with a 5–4 record.

Career

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, in Turin, Italy, she was part of Ludmila Privivkova's team. A year later her team won the 2006 European Curling Championships. She also represented Russia in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as second on Privivkova's team.

In 2014, Ezekh served as the alternate on the Anna Sidorova team at the 2014 World Women's Curling Championship, held from March 15 to 23 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The team finished the round robin with an 8–3 record, earning the third seed in the playoffs. Russia lost to Team Korea in the 3 vs. 4 playoff game, but in a rematch the following day Ezekh and her teammates defeated the Korean team to win the bronze medal. It was the first medal for Russia in the history of the world women's curling championships.[2]

The team then followed up with bronze medals at both the 2015 and 2016 world women's curling championships, and a gold medal at the 2015 European Curling Championships in the meantime. They just narrowly missed playing for gold for the first time at the 2016 Worlds, losing to Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa on the last shot of the semifinal. The team then defeated Canada's Chelsea Carey for their third straight bronze.[3] Team Sidorova made their first World Championship final at the 2017 Worlds, but settled for silver after losing to Canada's Rachel Homan 8–3 in the final.[4]

Personal life

Her father is of Nigerian Igbo descent, and her mother of Chuvash.[5]

Teammates

2014 Sochi Olympic Games

Anna Sidorova, Skip

Margarita Fomina, Third

Alexandra Saitova, Second

Ekaterina Galkina, Lead

2017 World Championship

Anna Sidorova, Skip

Margarita Fomina, Third

Alina Kovaleva, Second

Alexandra Raeva, Alternate

References

  1. ↑ "ЧЕМПИОНАТ РОССИИ СРЕДИ ЖЕНСКИХ КОМАНД 2022". Федерации кёрлинга России (in Russian). Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  2. ↑ Gord Holder (24 March 2014). "Russia wins world curling bronze". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  3. ↑ "Russia topples Canada to win 2016 Ford Worlds bronze". Curling Canada. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Brazeau (27 March 2017). "8 Ends: Homan simply dominant in historic run to world title". Sportsnet. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  5. ↑ I support Kenyans by the call of my blood
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