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"14th Best of Best" On Top of Mountain
14th Best of Best HK Open DanceSport Championships, Hong Kong Ballroom Dancers International (HKBDI) & Asian Dance Council Amateur League (ADC AL) Ranking Event, on 25/12/12 was my 51st organization of competitions over the past 20 years. 43 Dinner Tables were sold out, almost 180 couples and 50 Solo Dancers entered. These statistics surpassed all the record of entries & tickets selling of my past 50 competitions.
Although some hiccup occured in relation to about 10 couples from China, in another way of thinking their absence alleviated my pressure on the day as time was running short due to enormous entries of couples. This incident also allowed some couples chances to go into some Finals whereas their chances would be slimmer if all these 10 couples danced!
The other 170 couples (from Ukraine, Italy, Finland, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong) all danced their heart out on the Christmas Day, producing a variety of packed-day events full of energy, drama & incredible dancing quality.
To open the evening dinner party, I presented a crystal souvenir to the Chief Adjudicator Mr Richard Hunt, congratulating him being elected as the Chairman of ISTD DanceSport Faculty and also Chairman of Ballroom Faculty. I thanked him for setting up an example for me over the years in my road to ISTD Examiner as the role of my teacher, mentor and good friend ! Here came my surprises, the 13 Candidates who passed their ISTD Fellowship examinations in August 12 stepped onto the stage and presented a Thanking Souvenir to me!
The Open Amateur 10-Dance Latin Session Final was scheduled in the Dinner Party prime time. The only from HK couple had improved a lot over the past year, only lacking some experience & had to content with 2nd Placing behind the Champions from Malaysia who showed a more mature and consistent demeanor.
The Champions of Open Professional Latin, Manuel Favilla & Natalja Maidiuk representing Ukraine, stood out from the rest and became the crowd favourite in the afternoon's Finals. My wife & I had cordially invited them to do the Honour Dances in the evening, which enlightened the whole night's Christmas Party. 14th Best of Best definitely remains one of my best memorable events in my entire dancing life. To look forward,15th Best of Best is going to be another cracker and talked-about event as Gertrude & I had planned to put in the Man2Man Latin 5-Dance event in the 2013 Christmas Day!
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