The 54th International Championships - Juniors

All year we have been waiting for this competition to come around and now it has arrived, has been contested, and left us wanting more. The junior girls and boys re-acquainted themselves from the Blackpool festival and also made new friends.

It was an early start for the youths and whilst they were showing the parents and spectators what they are capable of the juniors were busy preparing themselves and warming up in every space they could find. Although it was a cold and wet day outside the heat in the sports hall was HOT HOT HOT.






The Juniors were now ready and waiting at the side lines. All the colours of the rainbow were abound and the different styles of the girls dresses were being eyed up. Short dresses with fringing, long dresses with feathers, they were all to been seen - some with not so much to be seen at all. The first heat went on and my oh my didn't they look great. Are these kids really under sixteen? Splits and spins, fancy foot work and hundreds of smiles. You could see that each and every child on that floor was wanting to be in the final and were enjoying themselves in doing so.



The English contingency did us proud on both days, all couples making the second round at least. England was still visible in the following rounds with John Giannini and Stevie Jones, Daniel Power and Amy Ward, Daniel Silva and Lauren Hunt and Jonas and Sasha complimented this in the standard event. This was fantastic for the English couples to see and for two of those couples to get through to both semi finals was simply fantastic. Keeping our faith in these young couples we weren't to be disappointed when one of our couples reached the finals. We all remained to cheer on our golden couple, Kyle Taylor and Jourdan Stone as they not only reached the two finals but went on to win the Junior Standard Championships. The hall was an echo of cheers for this fantastic pairing.



The whole event was fantastic. Great judges, well run and Karen Hardy was a fantastic choice for the compere.
We are all looking forward to the 55th International Championships.

Submitted by Sarah 31/10/2006