Lithuanian athletes danced in many groups: our country’s adults, young people, young people, youth and seniors participated. This year, Lithuania won 2 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze medals at the Stuttgart competition.
Some of the medals were won in the World Sport Dance Federation (WDSF) world ranking competition, some in the open groups of the tournament.
Lithuania’s highest achievement was achieved on the very first day of the tournament. Among the 101 pairs, Pranas Mitkus and Justė Jančiūnaitė from Vilnius club “DaVi” became the winners of the standard dance program of the youth age group (16-18 years), who also won the world championship of this category in China a month ago.
“We felt like we were defending the world championship. But you have to admit that winning in China in this competition gave us more confidence, although it also added a bit more pressure. But there was no great stress,” Pranas and Justė said.
Admittedly, both agreed that the physicality of dancing in Germany was more difficult because, unlike the championships, there were no solo dances in the final and the entire final – five dances – had to be performed with minimal breaks.
“But here in Germany we danced better because it’s a very fun atmosphere, good support, a lot of people,” the duo agreed again.
Silver medals were won in the adult Rising Stars world ranking standard dance program. Here, with a minimal difference of points compared to the first place, the second place went to Edvard Mašaros and Gabija Lapševičiūta, representing Vilnius “Spindulis”. 168 couples started in this group, and Chinese dancers Yuan Ding and Ruifeng Wang won.
Meanwhile, our professionals Edgars Baltaragis and Indrei Baltaragis from Kaunas club “Rolo” had to settle for bronze in the Grand Prix competition.
Having fought until the last moment with the duet of David Odstričil and Tara Bohak, who started after the break, our team was forced to recognize the superiority of the Czech dancers. The winners of this group were Edgaras and Eliza Liniai from Latvia. 37 pairs started in the group.
On the last day of the tournament, the under-21 youth team confidently won the bronze. Pijus Palskys and Ana Berzina, who danced standard dances in the age group, representing “Sūkuri” from Kaunas and “Rumba” from Panevėžys.
Out of the 50 duets that started, Pijus and Ana passed only the representatives of Romania, Lukas Butnar and Julia Bidic, and the dancers from Kazakhstan, Maksim Žilenkova and Alu Kargabaev.
Adult standard dance dancers Marko Bodini and Kristina Charitonovaitė from Šiauliai “Šypsenas” and Vilnius “Ratuto” also showed good results.
The duo of Lithuanian champions, who have recently been on the verge of reaching the finals in the most important competitions, this time fulfilled their goal and made it to the final six.
In the final standings, M. Bodini and K. Charitonovaitė took sixth place among 214 couples. The winners of the group were dancers from Moldova Aleksej Gluchov and Anastasia Glazunova.
Other medals were won in the open, but not in the world ranking groups. The gold award went to our people in the open competition of ten dances of the same age group – youth.
Kristupas Mlinskas and Liepa Rudnickaitė (DS dance from Klaipėda and Sūkurys from Kaunas) won the gold.
In the adult group A competition, silver was won by Domantas Balevičius and Dominyka Brantaitė (Kaunas “Duetas”) in the standard dance program, and Aleksandras Kutskis and Gabrielė Uldukytė (Vilnius “MJ Sports Dance Academy”) won bronze in the same group.
Another bronze went to the smallest – young people. Armandas Tiurinas and Ariana Rupšytė (Klaipėda “DS dance” and “Žuvėdra”) were also third in the standard dance program.
After the open German championship, Lithuanian dancers start preparing for the new season, which will start in September and will begin with the main standard dance camp of the Lithuanian national team in Biršton.
2024-08-19 10:22:31