MANILA, Philippines – Filipino curlers Marc Pfister, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister, Alan Frei, and Benjo Delarmente made the Philippines’ long wait for a historic medal in the Asian Winter Games more worth it.
The quintet struck gold in the men’s team competition after a pulsating 5-3 win over South Korea in the final at the Harbin Pingfang Curling Arena in China on Friday, February 14.
Having already made history after reaching the finale, the Filipinos took it a step further by capturing the gold as they earned some sort of redemption after bowing to the Koreans in group play for their only loss of the tournament.
The Philippines scored a point in each of the last two ends in the nail-biting win that came down the wire, with Korea unable to force an extra end.
In the eighth and final end, the Philippines niftily placed a stone inside the target — known as house — then prevented it from being knocked out of position by employing an effective defensive tactic with its remaining stones.
Korea, composed of Lee Jae-beom, Kim Hyo-jun, Kim Eun-bin, Pyo Jeong-min, and Kim Jin-hun, made a last-ditch attempt but misfired on its last stone.
It marked the first time the Philippines — a tropical country — won a medal in the continental showdown for winter sports since it debuted in the 1990 Sapporo edition.
The Philippines also went home without a medal in 2007 Changchun, 2011 Astana-Almaty, and 2017 Sapporo before breaking through in Harbin this year.
Coached by Jessica Pfister, the Philippines finished the group stage with a 4-1 record then went on to beat Japan in the qualification and outlast host China in the semifinals.
It was a heartbreaking finish for the Koreans after they went unbeaten in the group round to automatically qualify for the semifinals, where they scored an 13-2 thumping of Hong Kong.
China crushed Hong Kong by way of a 10-3 win to bag bronze. – Rappler.com