FIL-AMERICAN Isabella Gamez and Russian partner Alexander Korovin made their international debut as figure skating partners for the Philippines last night in the Finlandia Trophy at the Espoo Metro Areena in Espoo, Finland.
“Isabella has a new partner in Alexander Korovin and they are representing the country.
Under international skating rules, up to the world championship level you can play for the country of either partner,” said Philippine Skating Union president Nikki Cheng.
Gamez, 23, whose parents were born in the country and of Spanish ancestry, once performed under the Spanish flag as a junior skater and was its national junior champion in 2018. She placed 13th in the world junior championships in Sofia, Bulgaria that same year.
She switched nationalities in 2019 and with Canadian partner David Alexandre Paradise placed ninth overall in the Four Continents Championships, a major international figure skating meet, in 2020 in Seoul, South Korea.
“Gamez lost her previous partner (Paradise) during the COVID-19 pandemic but found a new one in Korovin, who has strong pair figure skating credentials in Russia, so I am very excited for them in making their debut in the Finlandia Trophy,” Cheng said.
In partnership with countrywoman Alisa Efimova, Korovin, 28, won a string of international titles, among them the pairs gold medal in the 2018 Challenger Series Nebelhorn Trophy staged in Germany and the CS Golden Spin months later in Zagreb, Croatia.
