INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - With international dance sport Federation president Carlos Freitag of Spain in attendance, world-class dance athletes will strut their savvy this weekend in a blue-ribbon affair held under the auspices of the Dance Sport Council of the Philippines.

The DSCP will stage its Midyear Ranking at the PhilSports Arena, highlighting its 13th anniversary.

This will be followed Sunday with the holding of the 2009 IDSF Asian Championships and the 3rd Manila IDSF Open Latin and Standard Competitions at the Isla Grand Ballroom of Edsa Shangri-La Hotel.

Freitag will be accompanied by his wife, Evelyn.

Becky Garcia, president of the DSCP, said the council is staging these competitions to show the Filipinos’ commitment to dancesport on the international level.

She added her group has been sending representatives to the World Games, Asian Indoor Games, the Southeast Asian Games and all other Olympic-recognized events.

About 500 topnotch dance athletes from Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and host Philippines are seeing action in the competition.

Organizers said 10 IDSF-licensed adjudicators from Germany, New Zealand, Japan, Slovenia, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong will serve as judges.

Among the event’s sponsors are the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee.