Asian Winter Games: Gamez, Korovin keep figure skating medal hopes alive

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Isabella Gamez and Aleksandr Korovin did just enough to qualify to the medal round of figure skating’s mixed pair short program, which kept the country’s medal hope afloat after absorbing stinging defeats in the other events of the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China Tuesday.

Gamez and Korovin, a Russian-born naturalized Filipino, was fourth in the qualifying round with a 55.63 score, which was enough to book them a ticket to Wednesday’s finale, where they would have a golden chance at delivering the country’s breakthrough medal in the quadrennial meet.

Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitry Chigirev was the round’s best performer with a 64.55; while Japan’s Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi was No. 2 with a 58.49, and North Korea’s Ryom Tae Ok and Han Kum Chol third with a 55.63.

Meanwhile, Paolo Borromeo is currently fighting for a finals seat in the men’s short program at the HIC Multifunctional Hall.

Also in figure skating, Sofia Frank and Cathryn Limketkai will battle for slots in the women’s single skating short program today.

It did not go well though in the women’s freeski slopestyle event where Laetazs Amihan Rabe ended up sixth with 56.50 points in the first run and a DNI (Did Not Improve) in the second.

“I’m still happy with my runs even though it ended at last [place] But I’ve done a lot of progressions and I did my best where I pushed myself which I have never done before,” said Rabe.

Over at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena, Team Philippines absorbed another loss in women’s curling after Kazakhstan escaped with a hard-fought 5-4 victory over the Filipina curlers.

The Filipina curlers absorbed their second defeat in four matches and still have four games in the single-round, nine-team tournament in a bid to advance to the semifinals.

The Philippine men’s team walloped Kyrgyzstan, 12-2, for its second victory late Monday evening and took a break on Tuesday.

• Latest
• Trending