Figure skaters Sofia Frank, Cathryn Limketkai advance to medal round of Asian Winter Games

The Philippines' Sofia Frank and Cathryn Limketkai qualified to the medal round of women's single figure skating in the 2025 Asian Winter Games following impressive performances in the short program on Wednesday at the HIC Multifunction Hall in China. 

The 19-year-old Limketkai garnered 45.28 points anchored on 24.07 on technical element score and 22.21 on program component while enduring a 1.00 deduction point to wound up 10th.

Frank, meanwhile, collected 21.21 on technicalities and 22.34 on program component while sustaining no deduction for a total of 43.55 points, placing 11th in the 25-woman field.

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan topped the short program with 75.03 points while South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim and another Japanese bet Hana Yoshida finished at second and third spots with 71.88 and 68.76 points each.

South Korea is the defending gold medalist in the event with Choi Da-bin ruling the 2017 edition while Li Zijun of China and Elizabet Tursynbaeva copped the silver and bronze medals, respectively. 

Limketkai and Frank will both go for the country's first podium finish at the tournament when they compete in the medal round on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, the country's men's and women's curling teams had contrasting results on Wednesday after the men's squad pulled off an 11-3 win over Chinese Taipei in their round robin action in Group A. With the victory, the Filipino curlers have qualified to the playoffs where they will square off with Japan in the quarterfinals. 

The women's side, however, fell to the hometown bet China with a 5-9 loss to go 3-3 in the preliminaries. Only the top four nations will earn a berth for the semifinals.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News