Pinoys continue to make waves on the international sporting stage as another Filipina athlete captured victory on the global ice rink—and she is only 13 years old.
Screengrab: Ice Skating Association of India/YouTube
Hailing from Cagayan, Keirsten Layne Fernandez made her mark in history as the first Filipino athlete to secure a gold medal at the Asian Open Short Track Speed Skating Trophy.
But Fernandez did not stop at a single victory. She delivered a dominant performance, sweeping two events—the Junior C Girls 1000-meter and the Junior C Girls 777-meter—at the Himadri Ice Rink in Dehradun, India.
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Clocking in at an impressive 1:44.307, Fernandez captured gold in the Junior C Girls 1000-meter event, outlasting Indonesia’s Matsuri Kinasih and Hong Kong’s Jacey Yeung. She followed up her stellar performance by edging out Australia’s Rachel Yi Lin Tan in the Junior C Girls 777-meter event, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:19.989.
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This international triumph follows another remarkable campaign earlier this year, when the 13-year-old phenom dominated the Southeast Asian Open Short Track Speed Skating Trophy 2026, held from January 10 to 11 at the SM Skating Mall of Asia in Pasay City. Playing on home ice, she swept three gold medals across the junior girls’ 1000-meter final, sprint skate, and distance categories.
Her back-to-back international victories solidified Fernandez’s status as one of the Philippines’ brightest young prodigies in winter sports, proving that tropical athletes can excel on ice.
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The Philippine team enjoyed a strong overall showing in Dehradun as two other Filipino speed skaters joined Fernandez on the podium: 23-year-old Xsandrie Guimba secured a silver medal in the senior women’s 1,000-meter event, while eight-year-old Zymone Zurbito, a promising young speed skater, claimed a bronze medal in the Junior F boys’ 333-meter event.
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