Philippine para dance sport team bags 19 medals in Polish Open

The Philippine para dance sport team brought in a big haul of 19 medals, including seven golds, in the 2021 Polish Para Dance Sport Open held on October 9-10 in Lomianki, Poland.

Edelyn de Asis led the PH contingent with four gold medals, winning in the women’s single freestyle 2, single conventional 2, and rising junior events. She also teamed up with Julius Obero iin the duo freestyle 2 for her fourth gold.

“Sobrang blessed po and masaya din po kasi nakakuha po ako ng ganito. Hindi ko talaga inexpect na mananalo ako kasi meron din pong mga magagaling na mananayaw,” de Asis said in an interview on Unang Hirit.

[I feel really blessed and happy because I was able to get this. I didn’t expect that I would win because there are a lot of other skilled competitors.]

De Asis was able to complete this feat even after suffering an arm injury in one event after breaking a wheel on her wheelchair.

Obero also won two other gold medals with long-time partner Rhea Marquez in the combi latin class 2 and freestyle combi class 2 events. The pair had previously been the World Champions in the combi freestyle class 2, first winning back in the 2015 IPC Wheelchair Dance Sports World Championships.

“Sa amin po ni Rhea, matagal na po kami partners, halos almost six years na. Nag-start ang [partnership] namin 2015 po, yun yung first World Championship na sinalihan namin. Yun din ang first gold medal na naiuwi namin. Sa amin ni Rhea, sanay na talaga kami sa larangan ng para dancesport,” Obero said.

[With me and Rhea, we have been partners for a long time, almost six years We started in 2015, in the first World Championship that we entered. That was also the first gold medal we brought home. With me and Rhea, we are used to competing in the field of para dancesport.] 

“Yung challenge naman po is kahit matagal na kami mag-partner, kailangan namin tuloy tuloy i-prove yung skills namin. pati po yung coordination. Plus ma-i-apply namin sa system namin yung mga techniques na tinuturo ng mga coaches namin,” Marquez added.

“Yun po yung ulitimate challenge, kailangan po laging mag-level up ka. Kailangan laging may bago, kailangan lagi may surprise.”

[The challenge is even if we’ve been partners for a while, we need to continue to prove our skills and our coordination. Plus, we need to apply the techniques our coaches teach us into our system. That’s the ultimate challenge. You always need to level up. There always needs to be something new, a surprise.]

The Polish Open served as qualifying for the 2021 World Para Dance Sports Championships scheduled for November 26 to 28 in Ulsan, South Korea.

—JMB, GMA News