THE overall mood of the national team members bound for the 9th Asian Winter Games opening in a week in Harbin, China is upbeat, with some of them keen on bringing home the bacon, according to national team chief of mission Richard Lim.
“All of the 20 national athletes are positive, with some eager to win medals in the Asian Winters Games, while some are there for the experience,” said Lim, who held an online meeting with the Philippine contingent last Wednesday.
“We may not be a country with snow and cold climate but our athletes are eager to make their countrymen proud in Harbin,” added the PH contingent point man, who left yesterday and was to attend the delegation registration meeting today.
Lim, the president of the Karate Pilipinas Sports Federation, Inc., said among those eyeing podium finishes are short-track speed skater Peter Groseclose and the figure skating pair of Isabella Gamez and Alexander Korovin.
A bronze medalist in the ISU World Junior World Cup 2 in Bormio, Italy last year, Groseclose is scheduled to vie in the men’s 500, 1,000 and 1,500-meter events, beginning with the 1,000-meter heats on Feb. 7, the same day the meet opens at the Harbin International Conference Exhibition and Sports Center.
Lim also cited Gamez and newly naturalized partner Alexander Korovin, who will swing into action in the short program on Feb. 11. followed by the free skate the next day at the Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Multifunctional Hall.
He said the men’s and women’s squads in curling, an ice event similar to lawn bowls, might also spring surprises.
The men’s squad is composed Benjo Delarmente, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and Marc Pfister while Anne Bonache, Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Dubberstein, Sheila Mariano and Jessica Pfister make up the women’s squad.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone among them will bring home a medal,” he said of the Asian Winter Games campaigners, who seek to end a 34-year-old medal drought in the competition since the Philippines made its debut in the 1990 edition in Sapporo, Japan.
The other athletes seeing action in Harbin are figure skaters Paolo Borromeo in the men’s singles and Cathryn Limketkai and Sofia Frank in the women’s singles, alpine skiers Francis Ceccarelli and Tallulah Proulx, snowboarder Adrian Lee Tongko and freestyle skier Amihan Laetaz Rabe.
He said among the members of the PH team secretariat is lawn bowls head Benito Pascual, who speaks fluent Mandarin and also expects to get further assistance from Mandarin-speaking skating chief Nikki Cheng.
Lim is grateful to the Philippine Sports Commission for providing them with the proper winter apparel, considering that the Harbin weather could dip to as low as -16 degrees Celsius on average “and that is during the day.”
“We are very grateful that the PSC provides us all the things that we needed like winter jackets, thermal wear, masks and gloves so we can cope with the biting cold in China,” he said.
The 9th Asian Winter Games is the first major international ice and snow event hosted by China since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, according to the competition website.
More than 1,500 athletes from 34 countries and regions have registered to participate in the Games.