And the results are in! Denmark took home the 2018 WDSF Latin World Cup title! Umberto Gaudino and Louise Heise, 6-time National Danish Amateur Latin Champions, competed in their first World Cup here in Chengdu of the People's Republic of China and heard their national anthem played as they stayed upon the highest step of the pedestal. A big congratulations to them!

Let’s take a closer look at what went down here in Chengdu during the performances of some of WDSF’s highest ranked Latin couples.

Just last weekend, the WDSF Latin World Open took place in Bangkok, Thailand at the King’s Cup on September 2nd, 2018. Winson Tam and Anastasia Novikova of Canada took fourth place, beating competitors Konstantin Gorodilov and Dominika Bergmannova of Estonia by just 1.669 points. Winson and Anastasia were ahead of their Estonian competitors in each of the five dances there in Bangkok. However, watching the live final of this World Cup, I was on the edge of my seat, for multiple reasons in fact! First of all, Winson and Anastasia remained in fourth position throughout all five performances and ended up just one place short of being on that pedestal.

Instead of a battle anticipated between the Canadians and Estonians, it seemed that Konstantin and Dominika were actually in tight combat with Russian couple Anton Aldaev and Natalia Polukhina, ranked 13th in the WDSF World Ranking Leaderboard. Konstantin and Dominika are ranked 10th. 

The first dance in the final was the Rumba, in which each couple performed their routine solo. Shockingly, both the Estonian and Russian couples came in with a scoring of 35.167! Under the WDSF judging system implemented here at the World Cup, as well as in various other WDSF events including the Grand Slams, it is extremely unlikely that two couples will receive the same total score for a particular performance, especially because each judge awards points based on a scale of .25. So, after the first dance, we began with a tie! 

Konstantin and Dominika won the Samba with a 0.086 lead and the Cha Cha with a 0.082 lead, extremely close calls! The Jive was the last group dance before each couple would dance the Paso Doble solely on the floor, just as they did their Rumba. Guess how these two couples were scored on the Jive? They tied again, this time at a score of 35.000! At this point in time, even though the Estonian couple had won each dance thus far, they had done so with a short-leash lead. This meant that if Anton and Natalia would out-dance their Paso, they could possibly take home the silver medal. It was clear the hunger that both couples produced during their performances of the Paso Doble. One dance would answer all questions and determine the final pedestal placements of the 2018 WDSF Latin World Cup.

Anton and Natalia danced their solo Paso Doble and scored a 35.375. Right after them came Konstantin and Dominika, who put on their show. They scored a 35.374, a .001 difference! The Russian couple had won the Paso Doble, but did not lead with a score that would put them into the top two. However, you could feel the intensity in the arena and hear the “Oohs” and “Ahhs” as we all waited for the results of the solo performers. Konstantin and Dominika took the second step on the podium, and Anton and Natalia, the third - a battle that was one for the ages and kept all those who watched on the edge of their seats.

This concludes the 2018 WDSF World Cup in both the Standard and Latin divisions here in Chengdu. Next up is the WDSF Latin World Championship coming up October 6th, streaming live from Ostrava, Czech Republic. You won’t want to miss the stars of the World DanceSport Federation take the floor as new champions will be decided this year! Stay tuned here on FloDance.