Skier Avery Balbanida ranks 69th in men's sprint of Winter Youth Olympics

Cross-country skier Avery Balbanida failed to advance in the men's sprint freestyle after finishing 69th in the qualification round of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics on Monday in Gangwon, South Korea.

The 16-year-old Balbanida, one of the three Philippine bets in the Olympics, clocked three minutes and 44.34 seconds to bow out of the tournament. Only the 30 fastest athletes will advance to the quarterfinals.

Balbanida was 40.36 seconds behind top finisher Elias Eischer of Austria who registered three minutes and 3.98 seconds while Italy's Federico Pozzi (3:04.43) and Sweden's Tage Boerjesson ranked second and third, respectively.

Despite the early exit, Balbanida remained upbeat and stressed the recent tournament will only make him better for his next events.

“It was more of international level skiing against the greatest skiers of my age so I think it was a pretty good performance,” Balbanida said.

“I think I handled skiing very well so this will help me in my future competitions.”

Meanwhile, Balbanida also faltered in the men's 7.5km classic event--his second and last competition in the quadrennial tourney — to close out his campaign on Tuesday.

The youthful athlete ranked 65th finished the race with a time of 25 minutes and 15.9 seconds. The German duo of Jakob Elias Moch (19:47.2) and Jonas Mueller (19:52.6) took home the gold and silver medals while Quentin Lespine of France wound up third after clocking 19 minutes and 54.1 seconds.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News