Thrilling final in Tokio – Grand Slam tournaments Standard and Latin

One year after the fatal earthquake in Japan and the ensuing tragic accident in the nuclear power station Fukushima, around 70 couples participated again in the Grand Slam tournaments in Tokio. With 9 couples, Germany sent the second largest delegation (following Russia with 12 couples). There was a minute's silence for the victims of 11 March 2011 at 2.43 p.m.

The final of the Grand Slam Standard tournament proved to be a thrilling competition between Benedetto Ferruggia/Claudia Köhler and Emanuel Valeri/Tania Kehlet from Denmark. It was their first meeting since Valeri/Kehlet had won the title of World Champions.

After the Slow Waltz, Valeri/Kehlet had a plus of .07 points, but Ferruggia/Köhler managed to draw level in the Tango. In the Viennese Waltz, Ferruggia/Köhler collected .72 points more than the Danes and after the Slow Fox they already led by 1.43 points. With 48.46 points (the day's highest score), Ferruggia/Köhler also won the Quickstep by a margin of 2.14 points altogether. The second German couple, Simone Segatori/Annette Sudol, finished third.

Grand Slam Standard:
1. Benedetto Ferruggia/Claudia Köhler, GER
2. Emanuel Valeri/Tania Kehlet, DEN
3. Simone Segatori/Annette Sudol, GER
4. Sergey Konovaltsev/Olga Konovaltseva, RUS
5. Dmitry Zarkhov/Olga Kulikova, RUS
6. Evgeny Moshenin/Genny Favero, ITA
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12. Paul Lorenz/Ekterina Leonova (semi final)
13. Anton Skuratov/Alena Uehlin
18. Valentin Lusin/Renata Busheeva
27. Michael Wenger/Jekaterina Perederejeva

In the Grand Slam Latin tournament, Sergey and Viktoria Tatarenko were the only German couple to reach the semi final. They finished seventh, lacking only a few crosses for the final.

Grand Slam Latin:
1. Aniello Langella/Khrystina Moshenska, ITA
2. Martino Zanibellato/Michelle Abildtrup, DEN
3. Gabriele Goffredo/Ana Matus, MOL
4. Andrey Gusev/Elizaveta Cherevichnaya, RUS
5. Armen Tsaturian/Svetlana Gudyno, RUS
6. Timur Imametdinov/Ekaterina Nikolaeva, RUS
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7. Sergey and Viktoria Tatarenko (semi final)
13. Marius-Andrei Balan/Nina Bezzubova
17. Nikita Bazev/Zia James