National figure skater Julian Yee has credited his contemporary outfit and classic rock tune selection for tilting the gold medal his way at the Philippines Sea Games yesterday.
Julian, who held a slim one-point lead over second-placed Christopher Caluza of Philippines after the short programme at the SM Megamall Skating rink on Friday, returned to action yesterday in the decisive free skating segment armed with an inspired song selection, which included the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and AC/DC’s “’Highway to Hell”.
And that, he thinks, did the trick as he eased his way to the gold with a combined 202.62 score. Christopher (180.22) took silver and Thailand’s Micah Kai (174.06) the bronze.
“I’m very happy to defend my gold... to be able to win it again outside Malaysia is a good achievement for me,” said Julian.
“I tried to engage the audience, to make everybody more involved and make them feel like they were skating with me.
“These kind of songs are louder and more exciting, a lot of people know these songs compared to more generic (skating) music, which are very slow classical stuff.”
Julian added that he felt proud to help Malaysia win their fourth gold on the first day of Sea Games competition.
“It’s a good start for us. I’m happy to help get the ball rolling,” he said.
There was no such luck for Malaysia in women’s event after Aina Sorfina Aminudin (59.580) and Chew Sze Chyi (48.980) were placed sixth and ninth respectively.
Figure skating made its debut at the 2017 KL Games.