HARBIN, China — The Philippine curling men’s team remained on track for a medal performance in the 9th Asian Winter Games here.
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 on Thursday against Japan.
A victory over the Japanese quartet of Ryo Aoki, Haruki Watanabe, Ayumu Hemmi and Rin Kyotoh will put 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 against Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at the Pingfang Curling Arena.
The semifinals is also scheduled 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 on Friday.
But while the Filipino curlers 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.
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 suffered yet another heartbreak in the women’s freeski big air freestyle skiing competition at the Freeski Big Air Stadium.
Originally, the event was supposed to take place on Thursday, but organizers decided to hold the competition a day earlier due to the threat of strong wind gusts on Thursday, giving all the winter athletes a few hours to train their routines.
The youngest among the six competitors, the 15-year-old freestyle skier Rabe did a 540-degree spin and several aerial moves to garnered 119.50 points from the six judges.
She, however, still landed on sixth place among six competitors in the tournament swept again by China after their dominating show on Tuesday in the slopestyle event.
“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 winner in the slopestyle competition, delivered a best score of 175.50 points after a variety of gravity-defying maneuver from first up to final run to seal her back-to-back gold medals.
Fellow Chinese Han Linshan clinched the silver medal with 162.75 score while another Chinese Yang Ruyi bagged the bronze with 159.50 points. 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 sixth spot also in the same number of competitors in the freeski slopestyle event after accumulating only with 56.50 points in her first run then committed Did Not Improve (DNI) tags after two runs.