2024-07-20 03:18:29
Pranas Mitkus and Justė Jančiūnaitė from the Vilnius sports dance club “DaVi” wore the gold medals of the winners of the world championships in the huge arena of the city of Usi yesterday.
“I appreciate the performance of Pran and Justė very well!” – said coach Dalia Samajauskaitė, who was with the athletes. “We had a clear preparation plan and we consistently followed it,” the specialist said about the strategy that brought victory. She also added that these students are easy to work with because of mutual trust, excellent data, hard work, full support from parents and an amazing coaching team. “We are all happy now!” – D. Samajauskaitė did not hide her best emotions in China.
The young champions P. Mitkus and J. Jančiūnaitė agreed with their coach, stating that, in their opinion, success was brought by patience and trust in the coaches. “You have to wait for the result, so it’s important to train patiently, not to be sad about lost competitions, learn from mistakes and return to the gym again and again to repeat the same steps,” said Pranas Mitkus.
After the award ceremony, the dancers had no doubt that they would remember such a competition and trip for the rest of their lives. According to D. Samajauskaitė, this world championship was perhaps the most important start in the couple’s ten-year career, so the fact that it will take place in a very hot and humid climate could not be ruled out. “We knew that it would take at least a few days to fully adapt. We estimated the time difference and the heat, so we left for Asia a week ago. In Vietnam, we still had time to dance the world ranking competition, where Pranas and Justė also became winners. So we checked how we feel in such conditions, and psychologically the victory also put us in a good mood. Going earlier and still dancing in Vietnam was a really good decision, because we felt at home in China on the day of the championship,” said the coach.
True, P. Mitkas and J. Jančiūnaita had to be very excited and fight for the gold of the planet championship, because the competitors were very serious – our team was separated from the silver medal winners from Spain by a minimal lead of one dance: the judges awarded the Lithuanian dancers three first places, one second and one third (five dances were evaluated – slow waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, foxtrot and quickstep), and the evaluators wrote three second and two first for the representatives of Spain.
It is interesting that the Lithuanian standard dance school dominated the podium of this world championship. The silver medals were won by Adria Hernandez and Emilija Ulčinaitė representing Spain, who only left Lithuania about two years ago, and the bronze went to the representatives of Kazakhstan, Neidas Lenkaičius and Tamara Belenkaja. N. Lenkaitis also lived and trained in Kaunas a few years ago. The other three places in the final six went to dancers from Romania, Israel and Poland. A total of 60 couples competed in the tournament – one or two of the best couples from more than 35 countries.
Lithuanian vice-champions Kipris Kūras and Elzea Gintvila Valiūnaita from the Klaipėda “Žingsnio” and Vilnius “Ratuto” clubs lacked a little sporting success in this tournament. The minimal gap left him in 13th place and the duo failed to show their prowess in the semi-finals and also in the final.
One day earlier, Junior II (dancers aged 14-15) competing in Latin American dances competed for the title of world champions in China. Here, too, Radvilas Sakalauskas and Emilija Mackevič from Vilnius “Ratuto” took 11th place in the semi-finals, and Tauras Grigaliūnas and Smiltė Barysaitė from Vilnius “Shokios technikos akademijas” and Kaunas “Tvisto” took 16th place in the quarterfinals.
This is not the end of the important competition in China. On Friday, all sports dance fans will again focus their eyes on the screens and support their couples, because the adult group Latin American dance world championship will take place, where Lithuania will be represented by Einoras Degutis and Ugnė Bliujūtė and Valerijus Šylo and Beatričė Rupšlaukytė. During the weekend, even several couples from our country will participate in the world ranking “Grand Slam” series competitions at the Usis Arena, and on Sunday we are looking forward to the professional start – Edgaras and Indrė Baltaragiai will participate in the standard dance World Cup competitions.
2024-07-20 03:18:29