Fil-Canadian bet Edrian Paul Celestino and Fil-American aspirant Sofia Frank came up with decent finishes Thursday evening in the short program of the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy in in Oberstdorf, Germany.
The 23-year-old Celestino, who is from Montreal, Quebec, landed 16th place in the men’s singles of this three-day meet, which serves as the final figure skating qualifier for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
The 16-year-old Frank, who is from Colorado Springs, Colorado, reached 22nd place out of 37 participants in the women’s singles.
A total of 20 quota places were at stake, including seven in the men’s singles, six in the women’s, three in the pair skating and four in ice dance.
The United States led the qualifiers with Vincent Zhou and Alysa Liu leading in the men’s and women’s short programs.
Zhou produced the best routine in the men’s competition, scoring 97.35 points from the judges.
Liu was impressive in the women’s side, topping the standings with 70.86 after the first of two routines.
Celestino, who scored 64.32 points, performed to the tune of “In This Shirt” by The Irrepressibles.
The 5’9” Celestino then started his routine with a triple lutz-triple toe loop combination, followed by a double axel, and finally a triple flip.
Frank, who usually performs to the tune of “Last Dance” by Donna Summer, collected 47.65 points, 25.42 points from her total elements score.
Philippine Skating Union president Nikki Cheng said they are keeping their fingers crossed that anyone of them could make qualification, given the closeness of the competition.
And their chances will now depend on how they will pull off their routines in the free skates program.
“Scores are close and tight with the other competitors so we’re basing on the scores rather than the ranking at this point. Kaya pang bumawi if all goes well in the free skate,” said Cheng. Peter Atencio
In the men’s singles, Adam Siao Him Fa of France came second with 89.23 ahead of Australia’s Brendan Kerry who notched 85.89.
In the women’s side, Alexia Paganini of Switzerland totalled 65.65 to come second with Belarus’ Viktoriia Safonova picking up 62.02 to take third spot.