HARBIN, China. — Isabella Gamez and naturalized Filipino-Russian Aleksandr Korovin offered no excuses after placing fourth in the mixed pair free skating competition at the ninth Asian Winter Games on Wednesday night at the HIC Multifunctional Hall here.
The Filipino pair – one of the country’s medal prospects in the continental games – scored 155.62 points behind their impressive repertoire but failed to overshadow what pairs from Uzbekistan, surprisingly the People’s Republic of Korea and Japan showed.
While Gamez and Korovin fell short in their bid for a medal, the men’s curling team raised hopes for a podium finish by reaching the medal round.
Skipper Filipino-Swiss Marc Pfister, brother Enrico Pfister, lead Alan Frei and vice-skipper Christian Haller broke a four-all tie and claimed the last six points as the Philippines scored a 10-4 win over No. 10 Japan on Thursday in the qualification round at the Pingfang Curling Arena.
The Filipinos were battling No. 17 China as of press time, hoping to move to the gold medal round.
This is the second time that the Filipinos will seek their first medal in the Asian Winter Games after the Philippines’ curling team mixed doubles team of Marc Pfister and Kathleen Dubberstein came up short in their bid for a bronze last Saturday when they narrowly lost to China 5-6.
Performing to the music of “Somewhere in Time,” Gamez and Korovin scored 99.99 in the free skate but still fell short in their bid for a podium finish.
“It’s just the nerves that really caught up to me. I just wanted to represent our flag so much and be strong, but mentally I wasn’t there,” the 26-year-old Gamez said. “So that’s what we need to improve for us to be successful and raise our Philippine flag.”
Gamez, a two-time national champion with the 30-year-old Korovin, praised her partner for doing a great job in their Asian Winter Games debut, where they scored 55.63 points for fourth place in the short program last Tuesday and qualified for the free skate the next day.
“For us, it’s not what we need to do physically, but it’s what we need to do more mentally. We need to make a quick change mentally. You know, I really let myself out. Aleksandr did good, he did his job, and he did everything,” she added. “Me? I was just a little under the weather, but I let myself go today.”
Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitriy Chigirev nailed the gold medal with 176.43 combined points from the short program and free skate while Tae Ok Ryom and Kum Chol Han of North Korea bagged the silver with 168.88 points.
Japan’s Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi tallied 168.35 for the bronze medal.
China’s Wang Yuchen and Zhu Lei placed fifth with 143.76 points while Japanese Shimizu Sae and Raphael Honda ended last with 135.58 points.
Gamez and Korovin are the first pair from the Philippines and Southeast Asia to participate in the final of the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships and the first medalists for the country in pairs skating on the international level.
“Improvement since three years ago? Yes, so it’s a big jump, but we still need to be more confident in ourselves,” Korovin said.
The duo is set to compete in the 2025 Four Continent Figure Skating Championships from February 19 to 23 at the Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul, South Korea to strengthen their bid for next year’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
The Philippine women’s curling team composed of Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Sumbillo An and Anne Bonache ended its campaign with four wins against four losses after beating Chinese-Taipei in its last game in the round-robin matches 9-2.
