The excitement is building as some of the best Standard and Latin couples in the world make their way to Rimini, Italy, for the third stop on the WDSF GrandSlam Series this weekend.

This year’s schedule has brought quite a spark to the GrandSlam Series, as three of the six legs are being hosted in the summer months: The second leg was held on June 30 to July 1 in Taipei, Taiwan; the upcoming third leg is being held this Saturday and Sunday in Rimini, Italy; and the fourth leg is quickly approaching on August 9-10 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Watch the 2018 WDSF GrandSlam Rimini LIVE on FloDance!

Standard (July 14) | Latin (July 15)

This is the first time that a GrandSlam has taken place in Rimini, a town known for its summer leisure presence by the Adriatic Coast. 

Taking a closer look at entries for the Standard GrandSlam division, 104 couples are currently registered to compete for the grand title Saturday at the Rimini Expo Centre. Out of those 103 couples, 54 have come to represent the competition’s hosting country of Italy. That is more than half of all Standard GrandSlam registrants! 

Saturday’s event will see the reigning world champions, Dmitry Zharkov and Olga Kulikova, representing the country of Russia. They currently hold first place in the WDSF World and GrandSlam rankings after notching back-to-back series wins in Helsinki and Taipei.

While Dmitry and Olga are the top sharks in the game to keep an eye out for, let’s take a look at a few other couples whom we can expect to bring outstanding performances on Saturday as well:

Edgars Linis and Eliza Ancane (Latvia)

This couple placed 12th out of 80 couples at the Grand Slam in Helsinki, Finland, on March 3, taking the last position in the semifinal. 

Just four short months later, Edgars and Eliza rose to the top of the semifinal at the second leg of the Grand Slam Series held in Taipei, Taiwan, placing seventh out of 50 and overcoming many of the competitors that had previously beat them in Helsinki. 

Some of these couples included Evgeny Nikitin and Anastasia Miliutina of Russia and Vadim Shurin and Anastasia Meshkova of Latvia. Keep an eye out for this hungry couple to see where they place in Rimini!

Francesco Galuppo and Debora Pacini (Italy) 

Alexey Glukhov and Anastasia Glazunova (Russia)

Evaldas Sodeika and Ieva Zukauskaite of Lithuania, ranked second in the World and GrandSlam Standard rankings lists, are among the notable couple who are not participating in this GrandSlam leg. 

For this reason, it is a strong possibility that Francesco Galuppo and Debora Pacini of Italy, along with Alexey Glukhov and Anastasia Glazunova of Russia, will have the chance to battle it out for at least the silver and bronze medals at this GrandSlam in Rimini. 

Let’s take a quick look at their interesting rankings in the WDSF arena.

Francesco and Debora are ranked third in the GrandSlam rankings list with a total of 2,052 points, while Alexey and Anastasia are ranked fifth with 1,767 points. However, when looking at the World ranking list, their positions are reversed! Alexey and Anastasia are fourth in the World ranking with 4,907 points, while Francesco and Debora are fifth with 4,845 points. 

Because it seems that Evgeny Moshenin and Dana Spitsyna will also miss out on this GrandSlam (they are fourth in the GrandSlam ranking and third in the World ranking), those two couples representing the countries of Russia and Italy will battle it out here in Rimini for one eye-catching and heart-stopping show that will determine their further placings in the Grand Slam and World ranking lists of the World DanceSport Federation. 

Catch all of the excitement on FloDance as we live-stream it all! Who will make the pedestal this time?