EUROPE Dancesport Grand Prix Linz 19/04/2008

EUROPE Dancesport Grand Prix 

Report by Heidi Goetz

Linz hosted this DanceSport event for the second time. The competition took place in a very big and rather new Sport Centre in Linz called Intersport Arena Linz – a multifunctional centre providing very good conditions for all the competitors. One of the highlights  this weekend was the IDSF Europe Cup Latin 2008.

23 couples represented European countries, among these all the well known and successful DanceSport Nations. The organizers were pleased also to welcome participants you don`t see on the dancefloors that often, e.g. from Greece.  

The couples announced for the final promised dancing on a very high level. Winners of the IDSF Europe Cup 2008 Andrey Zaytsev and Anna Kuzminskaya  from Russia had a very strong night and  won 4 dances. The most challenging couple Jurij Batagelj and Jagoda Strukelj (Slovenia) convinced the judges that Paso Doble was their best dance that evening and finished second. In third position, finishing third in every dance, came the Austrian representatives Zufar Zaripov and Anna Ludwig-Tchemodourova. The couple showed a great performance with great ambition. The Italians Emanuele Soldi and Elisa Nasato had been the lucky ones in the fight for fourth and fifth place, leaving the French couple Charles-Guillaume Schmitt and Elena Salikhova behind in fifth place. The sixth couple completing the final were Sergey Tatarenko and Victoria Lischynska from Germany.

The same day the IDSF Open Standard (Photo RIGHT) was organized with an entry of 76 couples from 17 nations. Winners of the competition with an outstanding performance that evening were Simone Segatori and Annette Sudol from Germany

2. Lacitis Vaidotas-Veronika Golodneva (Lithuania)

3. Alexander Muretov-Ekatarina Kirillova(Russia)

4. Vladimir Slon-Bianka Zubrowska(Austria)

5. Yuty Petrov-Yana Kozhukhar(Ukraine)

6. Matej Kralj-Spela Kralj(Slovenia)