(From left) Ung, Leah and Valery with the medals and certificates.
KUCHING (Oct 2): Sarawak DanceSport Association’s athletes have won five golds and one bronze in the juvenile and junior Latin category events of the Cebu World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) Open DanceSport Championship 2023 held at Cebu Waterfront City Hotel in Cebu, the Philippines on Sept 30.
In a statement, the association said the toast of the team from Sarawak was eleven-year-old Valery Chung, a student of SJK Chung Hua 4 who displayed dancing skills belying her age to overwhelm the some 40 plus juvenile Latin competitors to make a clean sweep of four golds in all her events in Juvenile C, Solo Samba, Cha Cha Cha and Jive.
It said twelve-year-old Erin Ung of Tunku Putra-HELP primary school, who partnered with a student of St Joseph`s Private School, Arabelle Leah Pei competed against 50 junior category competitors to take the gold in the Junior C Duo event.
Both Ung and Leah were placed seventh and eighth, respectively in Solo Junior C event while Leah also added a bronze from Junior Solo Rumba, it added.
Their dance coach Cindy Chung, assisted by Amy Kho from Kuching-based Russell and Randell Dance Company, were elated with the results and expressed their appreciation to Sarawak State Sports Council and Sarawak DanceSport Association for their support.
The association said the dancesport athletes’ patience and stamina were tested when competition schedule was delayed for more than ten hours, mainly because of an exceptionally overwhelming participation in the Cebu competition.
“That meant that they had to compete and dance well past midnight and only completed at 7.30am the next day,” it added.
Chung revealed the next event on the cards would be the Sabah DanceSport Championship to be held later this year in November.