The Benguet Dancesport Team bagged four silver medals and emerged on the top 10 among hundreds of competitors in the 1st Annual Diamond online dancesport tournament on April 10 to 11.
Leading the team’s win is Mico Dumalos with three silver medals in the grade D Latin male, grade C Latin male, and in the open duo Latin male with partner Mark Benter, who also managed to place sixth in the grade C Latin male and ninth in the grade D Latin male.
The duo of Jhosan Galvez and Mary Luz It-itan won silver for their performance in the open duo Latin female.
Galvez also placed fourth in the grade C Latin female and sixth in the grade D Latin female while It-itan placed fourth in the grade D Latin female and ninth place in the grade C Latin female.
Roschan Escalera and Eiji Justine Balao placed ninth in the youth duo Latin female with Escalera qualifying in the youth C female, while Balao ranked 11th among 61 competitors in the junior D Latin female and 15th among 63 competitors in the junior C Latin female.
Erick Cabloy, meanwhile, is top 12th among 31 competitors in the junior D Latin male and seventh place in the junior C Latin male.
With the athletes placing in the top 10, team coach Charibelle Pingawan said the team is slowly gaining prominence in the national dancesport scene.
She said the Benguet athletes, who are currently training at the Quads gym in La Trinidad, edged powerhouses like Cebu and the National Capital Region during the competition, which was also joined by competitors from Colombia and Indonesia.
This is the second competition the team joined this year. They first participated in the 8th Geraldine’s Dancesport competition where the members bagged one gold, three silver, and one bronze medals as well as placing high in the ranking among hundreds of competitors nationwide and overseas.
Pingawan and the athletes thanked all those who continue to support them during trainings and competitions, which were all livestreamed via Facebook.
The team is gearing up for the Manila Open on May 8 to 9 and The Jamilis Scholarship Cup on June 12. – Ofelia C. Empian
