Jun Obero’s triple gold show close Genoa 2023 World Championships

The Genoa 2023 World Para Dance Championships came to a fitting end with Julius Jun Obero clinching three gold medals to propel Philippines to the top of the medals table on Sunday (26 November).

Jun Obero, the Bonn 2019 silver medallist, had an impressive run in Genoa having already bagged two gold medals in the previous days. On Sunday, the former world champion (in single event) paired up with Rhea Marquez to dazzle the weekend audience at RDS Stadium Genova and clinched the combi latin 2 and combi freestyle 2 titles. 

In fact, Jun Obero along with Edelyn de Asis, who already has three gold in this Worlds, led the podium sweep for Philippines in duo freestyle class 2 event.

The pairs of Benedict Banghulot and Jhistine Glyde Baguio, and Joey Maglasang and Anne Charlaine Santos claimed the second and third places, respectively.

Twin gold for Kasicka, Solc

There was another pair who had saved the best for the last - Slovakian star pair Helena Kasicka and Martin Solc, who went on to claim two gold medals in combi freestyle 1 and combi latin 1 on the final day.

This was the first gold medal for Solc at these championships after the silver in combi standard 2 on Saturday (25 November).

Among other top finishers, Kazakhstan’s Ardak Otorbayev and Sevda Aliyeva continued their good run to take the top place in duo freestyle class 1. This was their second gold in the championships after the duo class 1 title. 

This was the first edition of the Worlds in four years since Bonn 2019 in Germany. Ulsan, South Korea, was set to host the event in 2021 but the competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was also the second time the World Championships is taking place in Italy, the first was in Rome in 2015. As many as 160 athletes (71 male and 89 female) from 24 nations (14 from Europe, 6 Asia, 3 Americas and 1 Oceania) were in action at the RDS Stadium Genova.

The competition ran from over three days of action and was streamed live on the World Para Dance Sport website and on PARA SPORT YouTube channel.

All results from Genoa 2023 can be found on World Para Dance Sport Twitter page.