Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

Ice Princess

Issai hails from Bicol, Philippines and is the granddaughter of Camarines Sur Congressman Luis Villafuerte. She currently attends a British School in Manila, according to Fe.

Issai learned how to ice skate at the age of 8. Accompanying her mother to SM Mega Mall in Manila, Issai grew tired of walking from store to store as her mother shopped. She found solace in the Mall’s ice skating rink – one of a few places on the island to have such a venue.  

“It just started out as a hobby,” said Issai. “Something to do.”  Pretty soon, she couldn’t get enough of the ice.

“She was begging me to go shopping so she could skate,” said Fe.

Fe started to take her to local mall competitions. In 2003, Issai picked up her first medal, a bronze, at an SM Southmall sponsored event. She momentarily quit to focus on school but picked up her skates again three years later.

In 2006, Issai’s seriousness of the sport began to grow. She was among the 1,000 competitors from 25 different countries and one of 200 from the Philippines to compete in the Skate Asia event at the World Ice Arena in Shenzhen, China.

At that event, Issai captured four gold medals, one silver medal and two bronzes.

Momentum began to build. She continued to rack up medals in other ice skating events in Guangdong, China, and in Bandung, Indonesia and she placed second runner up in an Ice Princess 2006 competition in the Philippines.

The next year, Issai picked up eight gold medals in her skill level at the 2007 Ice Skating Institute (ISI) Skate Beijing competition.

The only time she didn’t medal in a competition was when she first arrived to the US for the ISI World Recreational championship held in Chicago, IL. Issai had a difficult time adjusting to the ice surface.

“In Manila, the skating rink has a lot of bumps and sometimes holes,” she said. “They only clean it every three or four hours. But when I got here, they clean it every hour. I couldn’t believe how nice the ice looked.”

Comments

Add New Search RSS

Write comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Title: UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge     Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by AJPress

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."