Fil-American Sofia Frank placed 18th in the women’s short program of the ongoing 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy at Espoo Metro Areena, Espoo, Finland.
But the 16-year-old Frank, who is from Colorado Springs, still made an impact as she made history after her 53.30 points, which is considered a Philippine record when action ended late Saturday evening (Manila time).
“It’s a new national record. We’re very pleased she’s starting to make her mark in the international stage of figure skating,” said Philippine Skating Union president Nikki Cheng in a message to the Manila Standard.
The tournament is the third in a series of nine events of the 2021-22 Figure Skating Challenger Series.
Frank, who started skating at age 3, earned the highest score by a Filipino female skater in this segment of a two-part competition in this International Skating Union-sanctioned event.
Performing to the tune of Donna Summers’ Last Dance, Frank had a routine that included a triple lutz-triple flip combo as she gained element and component scores of 29.21 and 24.09 during her time on the ice.
Frank’s previous best of 47.65 was accomplished in her first-ever ISU event as a senior in the Nebelhorn Trophy a few weeks ago.
Placing 24th overall last September qualified her for the Four Continents Championships next year.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva leads the women’s division with two other Russians in Alena Kostornaia and Kamila Valieva.
Tuktamysheva also set a new personal best of 81.53 to best 26 others.
In men’s action, Filipino skaters Michael Martinez and Christopher Caluza had tough starts and finished in 24th and 25th overall places, respectively
Martinez ended with 43.82 on the technical elements and tallied 156.78, while Caluza, who decided that he will most likely retire after this season, had a 156.24.
American Jason Brown, impressing the judges with his artistry across his performances, took the gold with 262.52, while Mikhail Kolyada of Russia bagged silver (256.98) and his teammate Dmitri Aliev (249.25) settled for the bronze.