February 6 ------ THE Philippine mixed doubles curling team kept its unbeaten slate going in Harbin, China to reach the quarterfinal round at the 9th Asian Winter Games at the Pingfang Curling Arena. After beating world No. 13 South Korea, 12-2, and No. 45 Kyrgyzstan, the unranked pair of Fil-Swiss Marc Pfister and Fil-Am Kathleen Dubberstein defeated Qatar’s Mabarka Al-Abdulla and Nasser Abdulrah Alyafei, 11-3, for their third consecutive victory in Group B. “We just kept the same attitude heading to the next games. Our goal is to win all our round-robin games,” said Dubberstein.
The 30-year-old electrical engineering graduate from Wisconsin is confident of reaching the podium with the top three nations in each of the two brackets progressing to the next round. “Qatar is also a developing nation in curling just like us. Our game with them was a good experience.” said Dubberstein, who will also suit up on Sunday in the opening round of women’s curling.
The Philippines has been battling the host nation and world No. 15 China as of posting time. On Thursday, the Philippines plays No. 33 Kazakhstan at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, POC president Bambol Tolentino announced that speed skater Peter Groseclose and curling’s Kathleen Dubberstein will be the flag-bearers in the opening ceremony on Friday at the Harbin International Convention Exhibition and Sports Center. “Peter Grosclose already represented us in several overseas competitions, especially in the last year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games, while Kathleen is the other best available athlete as flag-bearer,” Tolentino said.
Grosclose, prior to the opening ceremony in the evening, will be competing in the morning qualifying heats of the 1,500 meters, 100m and 500m short track speed skating events beginning at 9 a.m. at the Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Multifunctional Hall. Team Philippines has brought 20 athletes to the Games who will vie for medals against athletes from 33 other participating Asian nations. Atotal of 1,275 athletes are competing in 64 events across 11 sports. Aside from Grosclose and Dubberstein, the other Filipino athletes for the Asian Winter Games are figure skaters Paolo Borromeo, Cathryn Limketkai, Sofia Frank and the pair of Isabella Gamez and Alexander Korovin.
The men’s curling squad is composed Benjo Delarmente, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and Marc Pfister while the women’s side will be represented by Anne Bonache, Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Dubberstein, Sheila Mariano and Jessica Pfister.
Source: spin.ph
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