TEAM Philippines asserted its domination of street dance at this year’s World Supremacy Battlegrounds hip-hop championships in Brisbane, Australia recently.
By MARCO SELORIO
UPeepz won the gold medal in the Monster Crew division; Asian Pride of Mandaluyong snatched gold in the Open division.
Defending champion FMD Xtreme (Open) of Marikina City and Recab (Monster) of Cabanatuan City won silver medals.
More than 1,000 dancers and 100 international hip-hop teams from across Australia, New Zealand, USA, China, Taiwan, Guam, India and South Africa took part in the three-day street dance festival.
The World Supremacy Battlegrounds, now in its 11th year, featured crew competitions, dance and rap battles, market and food stalls, celebrity meet-and-greets, dynamic musical performances, and live music from the best disc jockeys in Australia.
More than 5,000 people came to watch the event.
UPeepz, a University of the Philippines Diliman-based open organization under the college of human kinetics, topped the preliminary round in its division and never looked back.
Thirty-six Filipino dancers powered their way to the gold medal in the championship round.
Philippine dance coach and UPeepz director Chips Beltran was over the moon with the result.
“There were a lot of good groups, we were really nervous, “ Beltran said.
“Our win means so much to us because we really faced a lot of hardships before going to Australia.
“We had a lot of injuries, visa issues and monetary problems. Finally we won gold and it means to the world to me.”
Asian Pride was an underdog and only placed fourth in the Open prelims.
Injuries hampered their performance, but their passion continued to burn.
The crew made incessant changes to their routine but topped it off with an undeniable ending in the championship.
Asian Pride leader Mimong Samonte was left speechless after the team’s name was called out in front of 2,000 people.
“Sir, we are still in disbelief,” Samonte said. “We are overwhelmed, because there are so many amazing dance crews that joined WSB.
“We were content to even place in the Top 5 andf dance in front of a strong Filipino community that supported us, but God had bigger plans for us.”
The World Supremacy Battlegrounds moves back to Sydney City in 2016.
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PICTURES:
Some of the action atWorld Supremacy Battlegrounds in Brisbane.
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