00:00Once again, the best figure skaters of the country
00:05competed in the Philippine National Figure Skating Championships 2024
00:10held in a mall in Pasay City.
00:13This is the story of Daryl Oclares.
00:19The best figure skaters of the country
00:23competed in the Philippine National Figure Skating Championships 2024
00:29once upon a time.
00:31His routines were accompanied by
00:34tornadoes with silver selection
00:36in the possible competitions of the
00:382025 Asian Winter Games
00:40which will be held in Hanbin, China.
00:42The national team figure skaters
00:45were also on display.
00:47The skaters were Sofia Frank, Sky Chua, Sky Patena, Catherine Lemketkay
00:53and the champion of the Senior Women's Short Program
00:57Maxine Marie Bautista.
00:59According to the Philippine Ice Skating Union,
01:02President Nikki Cheng,
01:03the national championships will be held
01:05to find aspiring Philippine team figure skaters.
01:09Before, nationals was just nationals.
01:12Meaning, you have to qualify for a certain level.
01:14But what we started to do,
01:15we started to have an open category.
01:17Meaning, there are kids that
01:19they may not be able to reach it yet,
01:21but you know, they can join.
01:23This year, we have a lot of open categories.
01:25I see that there are a lot more kids that are aspiring
01:28to be part of the national team.
01:31Cheng added,
01:32PHSU also targets to strengthen their grassroots program.
01:38What I really envision is
01:39we can also produce our local talent.
01:42And you know, that's what we're really striving for.
01:44And we're happy that year on year, it's growing.
01:47Because like 2014 and 2018,
01:49Michael Martinez was a local, homegrown skater.
01:52And that's what we want to happen once again.
01:54So, we're beefing up our programs
01:57and there are a lot of kids that we see that are up and coming.
02:01And hopefully one day,
02:02they are the ones in the international stage.
02:05Daryl Oclares for Pambansang TV in Bago, Philippines.
Comments