Groseclose makes it out of three speed skate heats
HARBIN, China—Speed skater Peter Groseclose has now joined the curling duo of Marc Pfister and Kathleen Dubberstein in the hunt of giving Team Philippines a first podium finish in the Asian Winter Games here after surviving the heats of the men’s 500 meters and two other events.
“I know I’ll be competing (against) stronger skaters now that the field has been narrowed down. But it’s something that I’m used to,” said Groseclose even as Pfister and Dubberstein will be facing a home pair in Han Yu and Wang Zhiyu for the bronze in a rematch of their round-robin clash the Chinese won.
The Filipino-Swiss Pfister and his Filipino-American partner Dubberstein failed to get past the Japanese duo of Aoki Go and Koana Tori in a piercing 10-3 semifinal defeat that relegated them to a face-off for third place on Saturday.
“Our curling team is doing well. We hope that they can finally land our first medal in these Games,’’ said Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino.
Two other events
Groseclose, meanwhile, is still chasing a gold, which he has a crack at in two more events other than his pet 500m.
The 17-year-old Groseclose wound up second in the first of eight heats in the 500m, crossing the line in 42.562 seconds after Korea’s Sungwoo Jang (42.258) for a quarterfinal spot.
He finished fourth in the sixth heat of the quarterfinals of the 1500m (2:19.31) where China’s Liu Shaoang (2:16.53) prevailed while ending up second in heat 8 of the 1000m in 1:29.63 behind Kazakhstan’s Adil Galiakhmetov (1:29.46).
`I feel well prepared and ready to give my best performance,” Groseclose said.
