THE Philippines made an immediate impact at the Ninth Asian Winter Games in Harbin with a 12-6 upset of South Korea in the mixed doubles team event of curling on Tuesday at the Pingfang Curling Arena.

The unranked pair of Filipino-Swedish Marc Pfister and Kathleen Dubberstein turned out a nightmare for the world’s No. 13 and Asia’s top-seeded South Korean tandem of Jihoon Seong and Kim Kyeongae at the start of round robin games in Group A.

“It’s indeed a delightful news and a great start for Team Philippines,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino before boarding a plane to Harbin, China’s foremost winter destination.

“It’s morale boosting ahead of this Friday’s opening ceremony and I hope we stay this way,” added Tolentino, who will rendezvous with chef de mission Ricky Lim and host a team dinner with the 20-athlete Team Philippines on Thursday.

The Koreans tried to fight back from a slow start but the Filipinos had the go-ahead and scored five more points in the seventh end to seal the victory.

“We are definitely the underdog team here but our athletes are here to compete and they are proud to represent the country,” Curling Pilipinas secretary-general Jarryd Bello said. “We have a chance to secure a medal we beat one of the top teams already.”

Eleven countries are seeing action in the mixed doubles event and were divided into two groups—Philippines, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Chinese-Taipei are in Group A and host China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Thailand are in Group B.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals on Friday with the final set on Saturday.

“We got a 5-0 start but South Korea made the game interesting, but we prevailed,” Lim said. “This win gives us and our other athletes hope and I hope we sustain our winning ways up to the medal stage.”

Pfister and Dubberstein played a pair from Kyrgyzstan later Tuesday and will take on Qatar at 10 a.m. and China at 6 p.m. to complete the round-robin stage on Wednesday.

Short track speed skater Peter Groseclose and his coach John Henry Krueger are already in Harbin ahead of the competition in men’s 1,500 meters quarterfinal and 500 and 1,000 meters heats on Friday.

Expected to check in Saturday are figure skaters Cathryn Limketkai and Sofia Frank while Paolo Borromeo, Isabella Gamez and Alexandr Korovin are due on Sunday.

The opening ceremony is set on Friday at the Harbin International Convention Exhibition and Sports Center.