The favourites clearly prevailed at the Swiss Ten Dance Championships in Kirchberg, Bern: David Corrodi/Maja Kucharczyk won all ten dances in their sixth title win and relegated Büchel/Landolfi and the siblings Pikulin/Pikulina in the main category to the places of honour.
There was no doubt who was to be favoured in the main category; with Corrodi/Kucharczyk from the Tanzsportclub Zug, the WDSF World Ranking First were on the floor, and moreover they had already been rewarded with gold five times between 2017 and 2022. In Kirchberg, it was all about securing the "entry ticket" for the World Championships in Portugal in November in a convincing manner. In the four-man final, there was no doubt about the top pair from Zug, and the judges from five countries had no doubts either. Corrodi/Kucharczyk not only performed a compulsory programme that evening in the Saalbau Kirchberg, they also thrilled the unfortunately somewhat sparse audience with a high performance full of energy.
In their wake, the "old champions" of 2013/2014, David Büchel/Flavia Landolfi from TDSC, took the place of honour. Just behind them were Mikhail Pikulin/Eva Pikulina from TTZ, who relegated the Ukrainian pair Ivan Hadarah/Anastasiia Fedchenko, who compete for TSBE, to fourth place.
Whodunit in youth
Unfortunately, the starting fields left something to be desired in terms of quantity, but there was still plenty of excitement. The competition in the youth category was a real thriller. Arjan Steuer/Aroa Martin from Happy Dancers Baden and Vladyslav Davydiuk/Nikki Lia Keller from DUZ had a neck-and-neck race that almost ended in an ex-aequo ranking. Steurer/Martin secured a 4:1 lead in Latin, which the DUZ pair managed to equalise at 4:4 in Standard. In the Slowfox, Steurer/Martin fell behind for the first time, but made up for it with a victory in the Quickstep to 5:5. This tie then came down to the higher number of first places, where the verdict of 26:24 was as close as possible for Steurer/Martin... a 25:25 would have required a second edition over all ten dances.
The two other junior categories saw far clearer winners, both of whom started with a DUZ licence. Both Arsen Fedorenko/Elvira Sofia Frunz in the juniors and Mihail Novikov/Taisiia Vasileva in the pupils celebrated an unchallenged start-to-finish victory.
New senior champions
New Swiss champions were proclaimed in both senior categories. Renato Minnig/Sulekha Buhala (TTZ/DUZ), who had already won championship titles with other partners in previous years, won the Senior I category ahead of Richoz/Etter from Geneva. In the Seniors II category, Marco and Irene Milan of the Happy Dancers won ahead of Novikov/Treijere (DUZ) and Kistler/Lehnherr (HDB).
In a fortnight, the Swiss Standard Championship is coming up in Uitikon/ZH, where all these versatile couples will meet the specialists.
Text: Martin Zinser Pictures: Reini Egli
