Philippine curling pair nears semis

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Marc Pfister and Kathleen Dubberstein smashed Qatar’s Mabarka Al-Abdulla and Nasser Abdulrahman Alyafei, 11-3, yesterday to remain unscathed in the curling’s mixed doubles event of the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China.

The pair of Pfister, a Fil-Swiss, and Dubberstein, a Fil-Am, bucked a slow start and climbed back from an early 0-3 deficit to claim their third win in a row and closer to snaring a semis slot.

The unranked tandem was coming off a shock 12-6 triumph over heavily favored Kim Kyeongae and Jihoon Seong of South Korea and a 10-2 win over Keremet Asanbaeva and Ishkhak Abykeev of Kyrgyzstan the day before.

The Filipinos were to face China’s Wang Zhiyu and Han Yu, who were also unbeaten in two starts following victories over Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, last night and are scheduled to battle the Kazakhs in their final group stage match today.

Pfister and Dubberstein are eyeing to book one of the two slots from the group to the semis slated tomorrow.

The No. 1 nation in each bracket will automatically advance to the semis while the other slot will be contested by the second and third-placed teams from each group battling for the last semis slot via crossover format.