Goffredo-Matus and Bitsch-Williamson cleared the table 25/03/2019

On Saturday, the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Latin Series kicked off with the first competition of the year. The reigning World Champions, Gabriele Goffredo – Anna Matus (MDA), returned to the international dance floor after a nearly five months break and secured the win. In the winners’ interview (see below) they said it was like coming home and they really enjoyed the event. Vincenzo Mariniello – Sara Casini (ITA) ranked second and Hou Yao – Zhuang Ting (CHN), the bronze medalists of the 2018 World Championship, ranked third.

On Sunday, the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Standard Series had the second event of the year. On their first competition in 2019 and the first competition since the victorious 2018 World Championship, Bjorn Bitsch – Ashli Williamson (DEN) opened their season and dominated the event from the first round till the final. Winners of the first event of the Series in Tokyo, Nikolay Darin – Natalia Seredina (MDA) ranked second, and Cheng Dan – Li Zhenni (CHN) renewed their third position.

The weekend in Pieve Di Cento had gathered many of the best couples to the WDSF World Open competitions. Francesco Galuppo – Debora Pacini (ITA) won the World Open Standard (234 couples) on Saturday. Evgeny Moshenin – Dana Spitsyna (RUS) ranked second and Madis Abel – Aleksandra Galkina (EST) ranked third. On Sunday, Armen Tsaturyan – Svetlana Gudyno (RUS) won the World Open Latin (274 couples). Marius-Andrei Balan – Khrystyna Moshenska (GER) ranked second and Andrey Gusev – Vera Bondareva (RUS) third.

There were also events outside Italy. In Chelyabinsk, Russia there were WDSF Youth Open events on both days. Yaroslav Kiselev – Sofia Philipchuk (RUS) continued their fantastic year with another win in Youth Latin. The couple had competed in Italy on Thursday (ranked second) and just two days later they won the event in Chelyabinsk. Winners of the WDSF Youth Open Standard were Semen Ezhov – Marianna Butuzova (MNE).

In Riga, Latvia there were WDSF Youth Open events on both days aswell. Kaspar Kaldaru – Agneta Pukk (EST) won Standard and Aleksis Visockis – Kerija Keita Ziemele (LAT) won Latin.

In Kyiv, Ukraine, WDSF Open winners were Oleksii Halaktionov – Olha Shadrina (UKR) in Standard and Dmitry Marchenko – Anastasia Rybalko (AZE) in Latin. WDSF Youth Open Latin winners were Tim Grabenwoeger – Natalie Cremar (AUT) and WDSF Youth Open Standard winners were Andrii Buhlak – Anastasiia Ushenko (UKR).

This is just a scratch of all the events and competitions in different age groups during the weekend. There were hundreds of dancers in these different events who had prepared well for this weekend, and yet remained unmentioned. Congratulations to all couples, to those who were mentioned and also to those who were unmentioned!