February 13 ------ The Philippine curling men’s team remained on track for a medal performance in the 9th Asian Winter Games. Led by Filipino-Swiss curlers Marc and Enrico Pfister and Christian Haller, the men’s squad demolished Chinese Taipei, 11-3, for a sure spot in the knockout qualification match today against Japan.
A victory over the Japanese quartet of Ryo Aoki, Haruki Watanabe, Ayumu Hemmi, and Rin Kyotoh will set the Filipinos on a collision course with China in the semifinals. "We’re definitely going for a medal. This is going to be historic for the country," said lead Alan Frei after wrapping up their elimination round campaign versus Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at the Pingfang Curling Arena here.
The semifinals are also scheduled for late Thursday with South Korea awaiting the qualification round winner between Kazakhstan and Hong Kong in the other final four pairing. The gold-medal match is set for Friday. But while the Pfister siblings along with Christian Haller and Frei already made it to the next phase, the women’s side should secure a critical match opposite South Korea to progress into the medal rounds.
China’s prolific quartet of skip Wang Rui and her deputy Han Yu joined forces with lead Jiang Jiayi and Su Tingyu in defeating the unranked Filipina curlers, 9-5, forcing the latter into a make-or-break encounter with the world No. 3 Koreans late Wednesday evening. Skip Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Sumbillo An, Anne Bonache, and vice-skip Sheila Mariano fell to Kazakhstan earlier, putting them in dire straits to win either against South Korea or world No. 17 China.
Surviving the South Koreans will install the Filipina curlers in the semifinals on Thursday. Meanwhile, Laetaz Amihan Rabe finished sixth and last in the women’s freeski big air event at the Yabuli Ski Resort. The event would originally take place on Thursday, but organizers decided to hold the competition a day before because of the threat of strong winds, depriving the athletes of just a few hours to practice their routines.
The 15-year-old Rabe, the youngest among the six freestyle skiers, did a 540 spin and several aerial moves, compiling 119.50 points from the six judges in the event dominated by China. “I love the sport, and I hope to improve more. I’m still young and there’s no way to say no despite the results. I always love to represent the Philippines,” Rabe said, adding that she would keep on training every day in Switzerland to excel in the sport.
China’s veteran Liu Mengting, the gold winner in the slopestyle competition on Tuesday, delivered the best score of 175.50 points after a variety of gravity-defying maneuvers up to the final run to seal her back-to-back gold medals. Fellow Chinese Han Linshan got the silver with 162.75 points after settling for the bronze medal in slopestyle the other day while another Chinese Yang Ruyi bagged the bronze with 159.50 points.
Ruyi won the silver in Tuesday’s slopestyle competition. Japanese Kiho Sugawara and Kondo Kanon fell to fourth and fifth places with 154.75 and 134.75 scores, respectively. Rabe also finished last at the sixth spot in the freeski slopestyle event after accumulating only 56.50 points in her first run prior to committing two Did Not Improve (DNI) tags in her next two runs. Figure skaters Cathryn Limketkai and Sofia Lexi Jacqueline Frank placed ninth and 10th in the women’s single skating short program at the HIC Multifunctional Hall in downtown Harbin. The 19-year-old Limketkai had a technical element score of 24.07 and a program component tally of 22.21 in assembling 45.28 points, while Frank compiled 43.55 on the strength of 21.21 in her TES and 22.34 in the PCS. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto topped the qualification with 75.03 points, while South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim placed second with 71.88 among 25 competitors where the top 20 advanced outright on Thursday’s medal round.
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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