Outstanding Athletes
As outstanding GOC is an event, this year it had even more starlight and glamour when the Outstanding Athletes Awards were handed out for two extremely successful couples.
It was not a big surprise for the audience on Thursday evening in Beethoven Saal when the other couple, Benedetto Ferruggia – Claudia Koehler, was introduced as award-winner – that long was their career and what a career it was! They announced about their retirement as competitors in July in Caorle, but for understanding their meaning for DanceSport you only need to check their result listing on our webpage. What a list of nr 1´s!
Benedetto and Claudia competed together as a couple for 14 years, and during those years they reached the podium three times in World Games, winning gold medals twice, in Cali 2013 and Wroclaw 2017. They were World Champions three times as amateurs – and twice in PD, they won European Championship title for seven times.
Benedetto´s and Claudia´s reign as solid champions in standard dancing is, however, best seen in the numerous victories of Grand Slams, World Opens, other open competitions and recently Super Grand Prixes, all together 100 times. They were also honored with two precious awards in Germany in 2012: “Silver Laurel” and DTV Sport Medal of Honor in Gold.
The other award-winners were the German multi-time senior champions; Michael and Beate Lindner. They have won World Championship title in Seniors for seven times and they are 6-time winners in GOC. More than 50 times they have reached the highest place in WDSF Open competition podiums. Michael and Beate have also been awarded by DTV, their home town Darmstadt and federal state Hesse for their achievements in DanceSport. Michael and Beate have been also acknowledged as fair-players in DanceSport – models for everyone!
WDSF Presidium was honored to present the Outstanding Athletes Awards to the two German couples – the awards were given in Beethoven Saal by the CEO, Vice-President for Sports Mr Shawn Tay.
Congratulations to Benedetto and Claudia and to Michael and Beate – we are thankful for all your performances and the excitement we have been able to share with you!
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