Groseclose glides into 1st SEAG gold

SAMUT PRAKAN, Thailand — Peter Groseclose raced to a golden finish in the men’s short track speed skating event of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games ice skating competition Friday at the IWIS International Ice Skating Training Centre inside the Imperial World Sarongs here.

Pacing in the first couple of laps before exploding, the Winter Youth Olympian learned from his mistake in an earlier collapse in the final lap of the 1,500m contest to cop gold in the shorter run.

Groseclose crossed the finish line with a 43.257 seconds clocking ahead of silver medalist Ryo Yik Ong of Singapore (43.592).

Indonesia’s Jeremia Wihardja took bronze (43.962).

“I’m very happy and proud. This is my first time representing the Philippines in the SEA Games and it ended well. I’m very happy with the result,” Groseclose said.

It could’ve been a double gold for Groseclose if not for a stinging misstep in the first turn of the final lap in 1,500m event.

He took the lead with nine laps remaining and looked headed to a top finish when local bet Chonlachart Taprom bolted from the inner lane to overtake Groseclose. The Filipino speedskater tried to catch up but Taprom already sealed the passing lane in the next two turns.

“I was too soon to accelerate and I ended up spending too much energy too early. And that was the fatal flaw within my 1500m,” he said.

Taprom clocked in with a time of two minutes and 25.800 seconds ahead of Groseclose (2:26.207), who bagged silver.

Indonesian Marva Kayan Putra got the bronze (2:26.931).

The Philippines also took home bronze in the men’s 5000m and women’s 3000m relay events.