SOME of the world’s top dancers, led by world No. 2-ranked couple Timur Imametdinov and Nina Bezzubova of Germany, will try to invade Cebu when they take part in the country’s biggest dancesport event, the World Dancesport Federation Cebu Open and 10th Dancesport sa Sugbo, on Sept. 8 in the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.

Cebu’s dancesports patron Edward Hayco said that Imametdinov and Bezzubova are to dancesport what Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams are to tennis.

“It’s like bringing Sharapova and the Williams sisters to play in Cebu,” said Hayco in a press conference yesterday in the dancesport studio in the Cebu City Sports Center.

“This is a world-class competition but one of the many reasons we brought competition here is for the kids of our grassroots program,” said Hayco, who is also chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC). He added that one of their goals is for these kids to witness first-hand what it is like to compete in a world tournament and to experience a high level of competition.

Aside from Imametdinov ug Bezzuvbova, the other duo to watch out for is world No. 9 Hidaeki Kishi and Yoshimura Haruka of Japan.

All in all, 17 pairs including lone Filipino representative Angelo Marquez and Stephanie Sabalo will strut their stuff in the Cebu Open. The tournament will also be participated in by dancers from Australia, Mongolia, Korea, Russia and Vietnam.

Although the Philippines will only have one representative, Hayco said that they stand a chance to snatch a medal in this competition.

Team Cebu City Dancesport coach Crisaldo Rendon said that playing on their home turf will be a huge advantage for the duo.

“We stand a good chance of winning when we are competing in our own turf. Lahi ra man gyud ang performance.” said Rendon.

In Dancesport sa Sugbu, which is for local participants, they are expecting more than 300 pairs competing in different divisions.

In line with this, the team will also have a Dancesport sa Sugbu video documentary competition, which will have the theme ‘How dance transforms lives.’ The winning video documentary will get a P30,000 cash prize.

Meanwhile, today, the culminating event of the grassroots program of CCSC will be held at the Cebu City Sports Institute in Sawang Calero. ESL of SuperBalita