Sofia Frank’s dreams of making the Olympics will have to wait for now. She ended in 24th place in the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy’s final qualifying competition at the Eissportzentrum in Oberstdorf, Germany. Saturday,
The 15-year-old wrapped her international debut for the Philippines and at the senior level at that with a total of 128.78. Nonetheless, only the top six skaters eventually booked their NOCs tickets to the Beijing Winter Games next year.
The Fil-American teen was solid on her start with her triple lutz-triple toe combo. Unfortunately, though, her error on her next jump – the triple flip – started a series of mishaps.
Falls in Frank’s succeeding jumps affected not only her technical elements but also garnered her deductions totaling 4 points, which pulled down her total score.
However, the debutante fought through and pulled through with decent scores in the performance, particularly on her skating skills to save the program.
Alysa Liu closed out her day with the trophy and another berth of Team USA into the quadrennial Games. The 16-year-old standout ended with 207.40 points, well ahead of second-placed Ekaterina Kurakova of Poland, who had 193.58.
Nonetheless, Kurakova guaranteed Poland its single berth to Beijing with the silver finish. Belarus, through Viktoria Safonova’s third-place finish, also booked its solitary ticket to the Olympics.
Switzerland, Ukraine, and Australia also garnered berths into the next year’s Olympics.
With the result, the Philippines misses a chance to send a figure skater into the Winter Games for a third consecutive edition. The country, however, is already assured of a spot in alpine skiing.
