REIGNING national champion Maxine Bautista felt she did much better this time around as she landed 11th place overall on Tuesday evening at the close of the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy 2025.
Performing to the tune of the Gladiator movie’s theme song, “Now We Are Free”, Bautista got a total score of 105.69 following the end of the free skates’ event of the senior women’s action at the Mall of Asia Skating Rink.
“This is definitely better than (what I did in) the short program,” said the 24-year-old Bautista, who is based in Chicago, Illinois.
This put her in contention for a slot in the Philippine national team being assembled for the Southeast Asian Games.
“I’m happy about this. This is definitely an improvement,” added Bautista.
Bautista became the second highest-finishing skater from the SEA region, after Malaysian Audrey Lee took ninth place with her total of 108.99 point.
Lee got her score from her 13th-place finish in the short program, after landing in eighth position in the free skates.
Boston-based Cathryn Limketkai, who was ahead of Bautista in the short program at ninth, finished at 12th with 105.03 points and is also a contender for a seat in the SEA Games-bound national squad.
China came up with a 1-2-3 finish for the gold, silver and bronze medals, with Ruiyang Zheng topping the senior women’s side with her tally of 168.41, after climbing from second in short program to no. 1 in the free skates.
Yi Zhu, who was leading, dropped to no. 2 with her aggregate of 160.63, while Wandi Xu is at third with 142.86 points.
Los Angeles, California-based Paolo Borromeo was running second in the short program when he ran into trouble in Tuesday’s free-skating action.
“I think I was a bit nervous because I wanted it too much. But, it’s okay,” said the 26-year-old Borromeo, who has been competing in locally-organized meet for the last three years.
Korean Kim Hyun-gyeom, the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic champion, came up with another clean performance to grab the gold in the senior men’s division.
Taiwanese bet Yu Hsiang Li bolted from fourth to second to earn the silver medal.
Thailand’s Hiro Kaewthathip topped the junior men’s event, with Hong Kong’s Jarvis Ho and Jiarui Li taking the silver and bronze, respectively.
The five-day tournament, sanctioned by the International Skating Union and the Asian Skating Union, marked the start of the 2026 Winter Olympic season and brought together over 170 athletes from 19 countries.
