The Philippines is a warm and tropical country. We are frequently visited by strong typhoons. We don't have snow and yet Ice skating attracts a lot of kids, teens and even adults to excel and be competitive in ice skating and ice hockey besides the famous basketball played by all youth and adults alike. Actually you can see basketball courts in any street corner, subdivision and public recreation places but not ice skating rinks. The Philippines have only two ice skating rinks available to ice skating enthusiasts; SM Southmall Ice Skating rink and SM Mall of Asia Ice Skating Rink, the latter having a standard Olympic size and host to most major national ice skating competitions in the Philippines. It was where 2007 Skate Asia was held and Shariita and Jovanii was one of the competitors. Both kids where part of the opening presentations when Mall of Asia opened it's rink to the public years before Skate Asia was held.
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6YR.OLD SHARIITA AND 5YR.OLD JOVANII |
Shariita and
Jovanii started their skating interest and training in SM Southmall Ice Skating rink located in Las Pinas City. Back then, SM Megamall Ice Skating Rink was still in operation and Mall of Asia Ice Skating Rink was not yet built. Excellent training was conducted by world class coaches. These coaches get training from abroad, took their exams as coach and judge abroad. They are very serious to produce world class ice skaters and show the world that the Philippines can produce best ice skaters even if the country doesn't have snow. The Philippines are proud to have coaches like
Coach Albert Aguilar,
Coach Frank Masayon,
Coach Al Marinas,
Coach Nardie Aranton, Coach Edward Bungalon and so many other coaches to mention. They are all world class coaches SM Ice Skating Rinks are proud off. And I am proud to have my two grandchildren trained by some of these coaches. They treated the kids not just as their students but as their own children. I am not just witnessed to that, my own grandchildren(Shariita and
Jovanii) were accorded that kind of love and quality training.
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AMAQUIN SIBLINGS |
They had produced gold medalists and competitive world class ice skaters competing against other countries in Asia and the United States. We never went home a loser, our baggages were overflowing with heavy gold medals and trophies.