2016 WDSF GrandSlam Latin Platja d'Aro I The Quarterfinal

While a GrandSlam Standard leg was held in Platja d’Aro as recently as 2012, one needs to look back to 2009, and the month of May of that year, to find the last GrandSlam Latin on record for this location. Alexey Silde and Anna Firstova, RUS, the dominators at the time, won it ahead of Vladimir Karpov - Mariya Tzaptashvilli, RUS. Third was a young and talented Italian dancing together with his sister Antonia. Yes, you got it right: Gabriele Goffredo, by now a Moldovan, a two-time World Champion and a dominator himself – together with his current partner Anna Matus – made his first ever GrandSlam podium right here – over seven years ago, at the age of 21.

It would be nice to raise the questions, “Let’s see how he fares this time around – will he and Anna extend their winning streak to five out of five for the year?” But unfortunately we cannot do that. Gabriele and Anna are not here in Catalonia but far more to the south, in Andalucia, Spain, where Gabriele’s brother gets married over this weekend.

As a consequence, we are bound to see two new winners in the 2016 GrandSlam Series Latin. Who will they be? Armen Tsaturyan and Svetlana Gudyno, RUS, are the # 2 in the World and GrandSlam Rankings and also the last couple to beat Gabriele and Anna at the 2015 GrandSlam Stuttgart, some 14 months ago.

What was still a rumour in Chengdu, CHN, during the 2016 World Championships there in September, has long been confirmed: Armen and Svetlana are now stable mates – if that is indeed the appropriate expression – with Gabriele and Anna. How about the Russians taking the Moldovans' customary place on the highest echelon of the podium just to keep the stable owners happy?

But there are very strong German opponents on location at the “Palau de Congressos i d’Esports” too: Marius-Andrei Balan - Khrystyna Moshenska and Timur Imametdinov - Nina Bezzubova need a fourth result to qualify for the “Showdown in Shanghai,” the series-ending Final in December, and it may as well be a good one. In the GrandSlam Stuttgart they both defeated Armen and Svetlana. And at the Chengdu World Latin, the point spread between all three couples was less than four points. This bodes well for a heated contest, with Charles-Guillaume Schmitt - Elena Salikhova, FRA, also highly motivated to bounce back from a disappointing sixth-place finish in China.

The 6-camera production in High Definition covers the decisive stages of the 2016 GrandSlam Latin Platja d'Aro, with full graphics but without commentary. The programme is made up of four parts: the full-length semi-final, interviews with the finalists, the full-length final and interviews with the medallists. The full-length quarterfinal may be added as a bonus feature.

Produced by the WDSF Communications team in collaboration with the host broadcaster High TV and the organiser Publiolimpia. All rights reserved © 2016!

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