Martinez cops Sr skate gold

MANILA, Philippines - Sustaining his impressive performance in the Sochi Games, Olympian Michael Christian Martinez romped off with the senior men’s gold medal in the Triglav Trophy International Figure Skating Competition in Jesenice, Slovenia last Sunday.

Martinez, 18, executed a near-flawless freeskate to the tune of “Malaguena,” nailing all but one of his jumps to earn 131.84 points in the final round. The homegrown Olympian earlier topped the short program en route to a winning 195.13 score.

Japan’s Keiji Tanaka (189.83) and Ryuju Hino (183.06) settled for second and third, respectively.

“I thank God for this blessing – another gold medal in senior event,” he said.

Technically still a junior skater, Martinez has won two previous seniors titles, the Crystal Skate in Serbia and Skate Helena in Romania both in 2012.

“It was actually difficult for all of us because the 30 minutes practice sessions were scheduled a day before, and no more practices during the competition days. I’m very happy I made it to first place,” he said.

Fil-Am Samantha Cabiles, meanwhile, finished sixth out of 21 competitors in the Junior Ladies’ category with a score of 100.04 points. Elizabet Tursynbayeva of Kazakshtan took the gold with 150.68.

Martinez and Cabiles were tapped by the Philippine Skating Union (PhSU), a member of the International Skating Union (ISU), to be the country’s representatives to the Triglav Trophy.

Every year since 1992, the Triglav Trophy gathers over 100 of the best young figure skaters from all over the world.  

SM has been the primary supporter of the PhSU since the latter was established in 2005. SM also provides a venue for the events of PhSU for the promotion of ice skating in the Philippines. PhSU received accreditation from the ISU in 2006, coinciding with the opening of the SM Mall of Asia skating rink that year.  In turn, PhSU, as the sole governing body for Figure and Speed Skating provides SM and its ice skating rinks with marketing tools such as local and international skating events and its network of skating athletes.

Through the years, SM and the PhSU have conducted several figure skating competitions that have given birth to international champions such as Martinez.