The Saturday evening didn’t leave anyone feeling cold. Salaspils Sports Hall was warm not only physically, giving everyone the first glimpse of the upcoming summer, but also in spirit, as the era of Evaldas and Ieva as title holders took the first step forward. The stands were full and everyone was enjoying the event, just like the couples did, from the first round onwards. We saw how the top couples improved their performances on every round towards the end.
After the quarterfinals, the chairperson said the margins were really small. And as we look at the results, they were! A margin of 0.002 points in scores defined who made it through to the semifinal, and who didn’t. Dmitri Kolobov and Signe Busk (DEN), who ranked 13th, commented: ”The difference was practically zero. There could have been 13 couples in the semifinal. But anyway, despite the unlucky number 13, we are happy with our performance. We managed to improve our dancing throughout the whole competition. The result gives us motivation and pushes us forward.”
At the semifinal, the chants were getting louder and louder as the twelve couples in two heats shared the floor. The two Latvian couples received the loudest cheers, but it seemed like all the couples were warmly supported. This was also noted by the 2019 WDSF European Cup Latin winners, Konstantin Gorodilov and Dominika Bergmannova (EST), who thanked the crowd for supporting every couple on the floor. Of course, due to the short distances, there were many groups of people who had travelled from Lithuania and Estonia, the neighbouring countries, to Latvia to make some noise and to join in creating the full atmosphere.
The six couples of the final filled the floor with their presence. While watching the results develop and seeing Evaldas and Ieva getting scores over 39 points in every dance, it was pretty soon clear that the successors of Dmitry and Olga, now former European Champions, would come from Lithuania. Three couples improved their scores from semifinal, Evaldas and Ieva being one of them.
Silver medals were presented to the Italians, Francesco Galuppo – Debora Pacini, who were happy to brighten the colour of their medals from 2018. They said they feel like they are on the right path towards reaching their goals. The bronze medals were presented to the smiling Russian couple Evgeny Moshenin – Dana Spitsyna, who said they were really enjoying dancing in front of a such a crowd.
Evaldas Sodeika – Ieva Zukauskaite have been dominating the first part of the year in Standard. Their winning streak includes an International Open, three World Opens, GrandSlam Bucharest, and now the European Championship. As all top three couples are heading to the GrandSlam Taipei in the beginning of June, we will surely see a rematch of Saturday and the first leg of the GrandSlam Series.
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