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| The Philippine men's curling team posed at the scoreboard after its historic semifinal win against China. CWSAP |
MANILA--Two Asian Games, two years apart, two similar game-turning points, same outcome: the Philippines eliminated host China in a team event semifinals.
Two years after Gilas Pilipinas shellshocked China in the 2023 men's basketball event, it was the Philippine curling team's turn to deny the home team a shot for gold, eking out a 7-6 stunner on Thursday night at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena in this year's men's curling tournament.
Just like that Justin Brownlee moment, the five-man crew of Marc and Enrico Pfister, Christian Haller, Alan Frei, and Benjo Delarmento delivered in crunch time, scoring the tiebreaker goal right in the eighth and final end to stagger China.
Down 1-4 halfway through the match, the Philippines went on a four-point swing in End 5 and added one more in End 6 to take a 6-4 lead.
China pulled two back in the seventh end to tie the game at 6-all, setting up the dramatic eighth period.
With the win, which followed up the curlers' 10-4 stunner against Japan in the quarterfinals earlier in the day, the Philippines is now assured of at least a silver, marking the first time the national team will win a medal in this year's Asian Winter Games.
“Sure of silver, the first medal of the Philippines, first silver of an ASEAN athlete in the Asian Winter Games. This is a great achievement that opens the door for our country’s first Winter Olympics medal,” Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino said after the breakthrough result.
The Philippine men's curling team can paint the town yellow instead of red right on Valentine's Day if it clinches the gold in the championship game against South Korea, which drubbed Hong Kong, 13-2, in the other semifinal pairing.
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