Philippines bets stay alive in Harbin

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines, with brothers Marc and Enrico Pfister as spearheads, sank powerhouse Japan, 10-4, yesterday to barge into curling’s men’s team semifinals of the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China.

The Filipino curlers, who also have Christian Haller and Alan Frei, needed a strong finish, scoring six points in the last two ends to turn an early 3-2 deficit into a stunning win over Japan’s Ryo Aoki, Haruki Watanabe, Ayumu Hemmi and Osuke Miya.

It sent the tropical country straight to the semis where they were battling the great wall of China last night.

There, the Nationals will have two chances of delivering the country a historic medal in the quadrennial meet – beat the Chinese to ensure themselves of at least a silver or, if they succumb to the hosts, they could snare one in the battle for the bronze today.

The Philippines made it to the qualification round after tallying three wins against a loss – which was the 1-6 setback to South Korea in the round robin Group A last Sunday.

And the team is praying they would finally deliver after close brushes at a medal by the other delegation members in other fronts.

It included figure skaters Isabella Gamez and Russian-born naturalized Filipino Aleksandr Korovin, who wound up fourth in the mixed pair free skating medal round Wednesday night.