The final day of the international sports dance festival “Baltic Grand Prix” was also exciting, because on Sunday, both adults and youth (16-18 years) competed in the WDSF world ranking in ST dances with pairs of the semi-finals of the world championship, while juniors (14-15 years) found out the best in LA dancing.
In the adult International Open ST dance, where 30 couples from 12 countries competed, the audience could enjoy a high-class performance. Karolis Burneikis/Fabiene Charlotte Laksa from Germany, the 14th place winners of the world championship, prevailed in an exciting fight for victory, thus repeating last year’s success. The second place was won by Marius Ilciukas/Domile Semeskevičute from Lithuania, who won the World Championship and the European Championship. On the other hand, last year’s world champions in the U21 group Aleksejs Besonovs/Sofia Sara Barjabina from Estonia completed the top three, leaving the U21 world championship finalists Aurimas Meška/Aini Rutkauskaitis from Lithuania in fourth place.
For young people, in the competition of more than 30 couples, Martins Makarov/Regina Peika from Estonia, the finalists of the world championship in the junior group, demonstrated their superiority in the WDSF Open ST dances. The other awards went to Latvian couples. Just like last year, second place was won by national vice-champions and semi-finalists of this year’s world championship Ivans Ignatenko/Estere Siliniece. Haralds Baltalksnis/Alisa Mashchenko, who ranked 7th in the Latin American (LA) dances on Saturday, got the coveted place with a successful start, having previously been undefeated in the U21 group. In the final danced another Latvian couple Ivo Buliņš/Viktorija Smoļina, who took fifth place.
The victory for Latvia was ensured by the young duo Ilya Kachurovskijs/Debora Cherepanova, who convincingly won all five dances of the WSDF Open for juniors in LA dances. As a result, Deborah got the first place for the second year in a row. The second place was taken by the winners of the 7th place of the world championship from the Czech Republic, Davids Babels and Viktorija Babelova, who were danced in two dances – Samba and Rumba, and one of the Ukrainian couples Zakhar Hnativ/Anastasia Sidilo completed the trio. Bronze medalists of the national championship Romans Bogdanovs/Patricia Paula Vindele ranked two positions higher than last year.