HARBIN. — Isabella Marie Gamez and Aleksandr Korovin finished fourth in the pair free skating program with 55.63 points on Tuesday and qualified for the finals of the 9th Asian Winter Games here.
Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitri Chigirev of Uzbekistan topped the short free skate program preliminaries at the HIC Multifunctional Hall with 58.49 points.
Other qualified pairs were from Japan (58.49), Korea (56.68) China (52.05) and another pair from Japan (45.69).
The finals will be held Wednesday.
Laetaz Amihan Rabe finished last among six competitors in the women’s freeski slopestyle event of the 9th Asian Winter Games Tuesday at the Freeski Slopestyle Stadium in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
She garnered 56.50 points in her first run but committed a DNI (Does Not Improve) tag in her final two runs, pushing her down to sixth place in the tournament ruled by three Chinese freestyle skiers.
“I’m still happy with my runs even though it ended in 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,” Rabe, the 15-year-old daughter of Ric from Cotabato City and Aileen from Malolos, Bulacan, said.
China’s veteran freestyle skier, 20-year-old Liu Mengting, scored 94.0 points that showcased a tough gravity-defying stunt with corresponding spins and tricks, enough to take home the gold for the host country.
Her compatriot, Yang Ruyi, 19; and Han Linshan, 18, grabbed the silver and bronze medals with 90.50 and 87.00 points, respectively.
Japan freestyle ski champion Kiho Sugarawa placed fourth with 81.75 points and fellow Japanese Kanon Kondo settled for fifth with 72.00. They also committed DNIs in their last run at the downhill slopestyle course.
Rabe, a first-year senior high at College André-Chavanne in Geneva, Switzerland, did a 360-degree trick at the right side with a cannon move and tail grab in the first run.
She tried other different moves in the second and third runs, but the judges were not convinced.
The pair of Isabella Gamez and Aleksandr Korovin were presently performing in the mixed pair skating short program and Paolo Borromeo in the men’s short program as of press time. If they make it to the top 24, they will compete in Thursday’s free skate medal event.
Over at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena, Team Philippines dropped another match in women’s curling 4-5 to Kazakhstan.
With the game tied at the last end, PH skip Kathleen Dubberstein launched the team’s final stone with Anne Bonache and Leilani Sumbillo efficiently guiding it across the ice sheet for a winning position.
But Kazakhstan skip Angelina Ebauyer slid the last shot straight to the house while Merey Tastemir and Tilsimay Alliyarova patiently maneuvered the rock that bumped the Filipinos’ stone out of its spot on their way to victory.
The Filipina curlers absorbed their second defeat in four matches and have four games left in the single-round, nine-team tournament in a bid to advance to the semifinals.
They are set to face Thailand on Tuesday evening before taking a difficult route on Wednesday against powerhouse China and South Korea before ending the eliminations against Chinese Taipei on Thursday.
The PH men’s team walloped Kyrgyzstan, 12-2, for its second victory late Monday evening and took a break on Tuesday.
Led by skip Marc Pfister, the squad will wrap up its round-robin qualification in Group A versus Chinese Taipei on Wednesday, hoping to advance to the qualification stage before the semifinals.
Figure skaters Sofia Frank and Cathryn Limketkai take on 23 other figure skaters around the continent in the women’s single skating short program event on Wednesday at the HIC Multifunctional Hall.
