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[av_heading heading=’ Martinez falls short in Winter Olympics qualifier ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Tuesday, October 3, 2017
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MANILA – Filipino figure skater Michael Christian Martinez failed to qualify in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after settling for eighth place in the CS Nebelhorn Trophy at Eissportzentrum Oberstdorf in Germany.
Martinez, a native of Muntinlupa City, finished the competition with a total of 191.74 points – 67.50 in the short program and 124.24 in free skating. Only the top six were qualified to the Winter Olympics.
Jorik Hendrickx of Belgium topped the contest that served as the last qualifier for the 2018 biennial event with 253.06 points, followed by Alexander Johnson of the United States.
But with Johnson already qualified to the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, No. 7 ranked Yaroslav Paniot of Ukraine was awarded the last slot for Olympic figure skating.
The outcome was disappointing for Martinez, who bagged two silver medals in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia and the first Southeast Asian to compete in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
Martinez also failed to land a slot in the Winter Games during the first qualification – the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland in April – due to technicality.
He may have finished in the top 13, but under International Skating Union rules, countries with two qualifiers in the top 13 are allowed to add another athlete. This gave Japan another slot and in effect bumped off Martinez./PN
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