The Philippines’ men’s curling team launched their Pre-Olympic Qualification Event 2025 campaign with a 7-4 win after overcoming a slow start against a tenacious Denmark on Tuesday (7 October).
In the tightest of the games on the men’s side of the event at Curl Aberdeen, the Filipinos sat 0-2 after three ends, but were able to reverse their fortunes after a scoring three points in the fourth end to take the lead.
In front, they managed to stay ahead despite the Danes piling on the pressure.
Down 4-6 in the tenth end, Denmark, led by skip Jonathan Vilandt, tried their best to force at least a score of two to take the game into an extra end, and when they were lying three with the final two rocks to go, looked in a strong position to realise their ambition.
Philippines’ skip Marc Pfister, however, came up with a sublime draw to claim shot rock and force the Danes into a final a near-impossible situation as they hunted their two points.
Despite a brave takeout attempt, the Philippines were able to steal the end for one point and take their opener 7-4.
Joining Team Pfister in the winning column were New Zealand and Poland, who dominated their respective match-ups.
Anton Hood successfully skipped his New Zealanders to an 8-1 win over Australia, while Poland came out 12-3 over Chinese Taipei.
On the women’s side, Lithuania managed a 9-7 victory over Hungary, but needed an extra end to get the job done.
Up 7-4 after the eighth end, Lithuania looked poised to claim the encounter until the Hungarians were able to back up a one-point ninth end with a steal of two in the tenth to tie things up at 7-7. With the advantage hammer, however, skip Virginija Paulauskaite was able to engineer a two-point end to take the victory.
Elsewhere, Germany came out on top of Australia’s women 9-6, while Mexico needed just seven ends to defeat Chinese Taipei 14-3.
A total of 14 teams – seven men and seven women – are in Aberdeen to try and secure the six remaining spots for the final Olympic Qualification Event in Canada in December. There, the final quota spots for Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will be determined.*
The action continues tomorrow with two sessions of curling, one in the morning and the other in the late afternoon.
Find all the results, and the schedule, below.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Milano Cortina Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina 2026.