The Wah Yan spirit has prevailed and triumphed! The Holy Grail turned out to be Masters 2 Open Standard.
Yes, this is the century for the Chinese and Chinese supremacy reigned tonight with the announcement of a new Masters 2 Open Standard champion couple in 2012, Philip and Magdalen Lee!
The rounds started 10:30 AM with 64 couples from all over Australia and New Zealand competing in this event and the Final was danced at 8:30 PM. It was a tiring day. So when our names were announced as the winning couple, we were over-the-moon to hear that it was us! Even now at 12:30 AM past midnight we relished in this great success and still find it totally unbelievable that we are now the new champions in the international standard style. We are now written into the history book of Australian Dancesport, the first ever Chinese couple to have won Masters 2 Open Standard.
For those uninitiated in ballroom dancing, we danced the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot and Quickstep, the same dances that they competed in Blackpool in the UK Championship. So winning the title was really a great achievement for us. As a footnote, we were the only Chinese couple out of 64 competing in this event (not counting the Chinese ladies who partnered Australians and New Zealanders) and we had beaten 63 couples to win the title!
You might have wondered how we went in the other event that we competed: Masters 2 Open New Vogue. Well, we got the same results as last year: We came 2nd Place in this style. This time we were beaten by a 53 year old West Australian guy who until tonight competed in Masters 1 (age 36 category). He is over 6 feet tall and has long legs. His partner, a woman from Beijing who is also very tall for a Chinese. Not only did they compete in Masters 1, they ranked 10th in that age group. Losing to them was not really a disgrace, but coming second in this style was a great disappointment for us as we had won 9 times in this style this year and the wins included 3 national titles, one in the Jupiter National in Queensland, one in the National Capital championship in Canberra and the last one earlier in the month in the East Coast Classic in Sydney Townhall. I wonder who first used the expression: Don't count the chicken before they're hatched. I've now learned the lesson and will work harder and will never live in our past glory.
Having won a national title in Masters 2 Open Standard and getting a silver medal for Open New Vogue was a great result for us. We are very pleased to share this news with you. -- By Philip Lee
To watch the competition video click here
For another video click here
