After their fabulous 3rd place in the Professional Rising Stars Latin Competition at Blackpool earlier this year, Laura Stefanie Hafner and Jan Kliment were the crowned winners in the same event at the German Open Championships!
What an achievement!!
Very, very well done!!!
At the prize ceremony the Swiss national anthem was played:
The next day (at 2.22 a.m.) after the great success of Laura Stefanie Hafner and Jan Kliment the official GOC-Newsletter stated:
*** First gold medal for Switzerland ***
Six couples from six nations qualified for the final of the Professional Rising Star Latin competition. In the end, the first gold medal was awarded to a swiss couple in GOC's history. Laura Stefanie Hafner / Jan Kliment clearly won the competition.
The places two to four were hard-fought: Only one point in the lead, Iryna Zhebrak / Andry Dykyy of Ukraine ranked in second place, followed by Viktoria Belova / Eddie Stutts from USA. Skating was applied to determine the fourth place which shows how narrow the performance of the finalists was.
German version:
*** Erster GOC-Sieg für die Schweiz bei den Professional Rising Star Latein ***
Sechs Paare aus sechs Nationen bestritten das Finale der Professinal Rising Star Latein. Am Ende stand der erste Sieg eines schweizer Paares bei den GOC in den Ergebnislisten. Laura Stefanie Hafner / Jan Kliment gewannen souverän das Turnier in der alten Reithalle.
Spannend wurde es um die Plätze zwei und vier. Mit einer Platzziffer Unterschied ertanzten sich Iryna Zhebrak / Andry Dykyy (Ukraine) Platz zwei vor den drittplatzierten Viktoria Belova / Eddie Stutts (USA). Um Platz vier mussten alle Skatingregeln angewendet werden. Dies zeigt wie dicht die Paare im Finale beeinander lagen.
Fantastic!
Marriage of Laura Stefanie Hafner and Jan Kliment
(15th July 2006)
