Young Filipina star Laetaz Amihan Rabe remained upbeat despite her last-place finish in the women’s freeski slopestyle event of the 9th Asian Winter Games on Tuesday in Heilongjiang.

“I’m still happy with my runs even though it ended in last place,” said the 15-year-old Rabe, who was in sixth place in the tournament which was ruled by three Chinese freestyle skiers who swept the podium.

“I’ve done a lot of progressions and I did my best where I pushed myself which I have never done before,” the daughter of Ric Rabe from Cotabato City and Aileen from Malolos, Bulacan added.

Rabe garnered 56.50 points in the first run but committed a DNI (Does Not Improve) tag in her final two runs. The first-year senior high in College André-Chavanne in Geneva, Switzerland did a 360-degree trick at the right side with a cannon move and tail grab in the first run.

She followed it up with different moves in the second and third runs, but the judges were not convinced that maintained her score in the first run.

On the other hand, China’s veteran freestyle skier, 20-year-old Liu Mengting, scored 94.0 points that showcased a tough gravity-defying stunt with corresponding spins and tricks, enough to take home the gold for the host country.

Her compatriots, the 19-year-old Yang Ruyi, and the 18-year-old Han Linshan, grabbed the silver and bronze medals with 90.50 and 87.00 points, respectively, leading to the all-out Chinese podium domination of the tournament that has FIS judges from Slovenia, Japan, two Chinese, South Korea, and Austria.

Japan freestyle ski champion Kiho Sugarawa placed fourth with 81.75 points, and her fellow Japanese Kanon Kondo dropped to fifth with 72.00 as they also both committed DNIs in their last run at the downhill slopestyle course.

Meanwhile, over at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena, Team Philippines dropped another match in women’s curling after Kazakhstan escaped with a hard-fought 5-4 victory over the Filipina curlers.

With the game tied down to the last end, Philippine skip Kathleen Dubberstein launched the team’s final stone with Anne Bonache and Leilani Sumbillo and efficiently guiding it across the ice sheet for a winning position.

However, Kazakhstan skip Angelina Ebauyer slid the last shot straight to the house, while Merey Tastemir and Tilsimay Alliyarova patiently maneuvered the rock that bumped the Filipinos’ stone out of its spot on their way to victory.

The Filipina curlers absorbed their second defeat in four matches and still have four games in the single-round, nine-team tournament in a bid to advance to the semifinals.

They are set to face Thailand on Tuesday evening before taking a difficult route on Wednesday against powerhouse China and South Korea before punctuating the eliminations against Chinese Taipei on Thursday.

On the men’s side, the Filipinos walloped Kyrgyzstan, 12-2, for its second victory late Monday evening and took a break on Tuesday.

Led by its skip Marc Pfister, the squad will wrap up its round-robin qualification in Group A versus Chinese Taipei on Wednesday, hoping to advance to the qualification stage before the semifinals.

Lastly, figure skaters Sofia Frank and Cathryn Limketkai take on 23 other figure skaters around the continent in the women’s single skating short program event on Wednesday at the HIC Multifunctional Hall.

The pair of Isabella Gamez and Aleksandr Korovin were presently performing in the mixed pair skating short program and Paolo Borromeo in the men’s short program as of press time.

If Frank and Limketkai, and Gomez and Korovin make it to the Top 24, they will compete in Thursday's free skate medal event.