Dancesport Team Cebu City (DTCC) members Wilbert Fajardo Aunzo and Pearl Marie Cañeda will start their quest for glory when they open their bid today in the 68th Australian DanceSport Championship at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
Aunzo and Cañeda, who were recently added to the Philippine National Team, have trained rigorously at the DTCC studio at the Cebu City Sports Center. They will be accompanied by acting Australian coach Jeffrey Haddleton in the three-day tournament.
Haddleton, a four-time winner of the Australian Dancesport Championships in Melbourne in the years 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 and a fourth placer in the 1999 World Dancesport Championships, personally selected the two Cebuanos for him to sponsor in the Australian event after seeing their improvement in the past year.
“For their determination and incredible improvement in the last twelve months, the couple I have chosen to Australia is Wilbert Fajardo Aunzo and his partner Pearl Marie Cañeda,” Haddleton said.
The Cebuano pair are nine-time winners in the Philippine Dancesport Championships in the youth category. They were also second in the Open category of the September 2013 Championships and in the all age, open category of the Philippine Dance Championships. They were hailed as undefeated champions in the Youth A Latin Championships in the Latin National Rankings from 2009 to 2012 in Pasig City. The pair also finished third in the Amateur Latin Category in the 2013 National Rankings.