IN only their second international outing together, Isabella Gamez and Alexander Korovin attained a historic milestone for Philippine figure skating over the weekend, capturing a silver medal in the pair skating event of the Trophée Métropole Nice Cí´te d’Azur in Nice, France.
Banking on their superb form in topping the free skate event with 95.22 points, Gamez and Russian partner Korovin garnered a total of 143.544 points, counting their 48.32 points in the short program, to take runner-up honors at the Jean Bouin Sports Palace.
Supported by the Philippine Skating Union, the pair finished behind the Italian duo of Irma Caldara and Riccardo Maglio (152.27) while the French tandem of Oxana Vouillamoz and Flavien Giniaux took the bronze medal.
It was the first international pair skating medal for the country, according to PSU head Niki Cheng, who also revealed that the duo’s separate scores in the short program and free skate events met the qualifying standards to the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships next year.
Gamez and Korovin will make their debut for the country in the prestigious international competition scheduled Feb. 7 to 12, 2023 at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Cheng added.
“It is humbling to win a silver medal at an international competition and to be the first Philippine pair team to do so. This is our second competition together. We feel energized about the potential for this season coming off this win,” Cheng quoted Gamez as saying.
“We know we can do better, and we’ll continue to work hard to represent the Philippines on the international figure skating stage,” Gamez enthused.
“Thank you to the Philippine Skating Union for their support. We look forward to participating in several competitions in the coming months before heading to Colorado Springs in February to skate at the Four Continents,” Korovin said.
Cheng said the pair was also halfway through qualifying to the World Skating Championships slated March 3 to 6 next year in Saitama, Japan after reaching the qualifying score in the free skate event.
