Breaking for Gold World Series 2023 Kitakyushu: B-boy Flyingmachine and B-girl Johanna India’s top performers

Arif Chaudhary, aka B-boy Flyingmachine, and Johanna Rodrigues, aka B-girl Johanna, were India’s top performers at the Breaking for Gold World Series 2023 in Kitakyushu, Japan, which concluded on Saturday.

Arif Chaudhary finished 59th in the B-boy category (for men) while Johanna Rodrigues placed 50th in the B-girl category (for women).

The Kitakyushu meet was an Olympic qualifying event for Paris 2024, where breaking is set to make its Summer Games debut, and offered ranking points for participants. India sent six athletes, three B-boys and as many B-girls, for the meet.

India’s Arif Chaudhary (B-boy Flyingmachine), Ramesh Yadav (B-boy Tornado) and Suraj Raut (B-boy Suraj) competed in the B-boy category.

The format of the tournament saw the top-16 ranked entries in the event, provided they are in the top 50 in the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) rankings, start directly from the pre-qualifiers stage. The rest, meanwhile, began their campaign in the pre-seed or audition round.

In the audition round, athletes perform solo and are marked on various categories. The number of remaining slots in the pre-qualifier stage (total 64 for men and 32 for women) were filled up by the top performers in the audition round.

In the pre-qualifier stage, dancers faced off in 1vs1 battles with the winner moving on to the next round.

Arif Chaudhary was India’s top performer in the B-boy audition round, finishing 34th and was followed by Ramesh Yadav (B-boy Tornado) at 44th. Both made the pre-qualifier 64 round.

Suraj, however, missed the pre-qualifier cut after finishing 75th in the pre-seed round.

In the pre-qualifier 64 stage, Arif Chaudhary lost to Belgium’s Cis Backeljau (B-boy Cis), the world No. 16, to bow out. Ramesh Yadav also exited in the same stage after losing to world No. 4 Shigeyuki Nakarai (B-boy Shigekix) of Japan.

Shigekix eventually won the bronze medal in the B-boy category. Kazakhstan’s Amir Zakirov (B-boy Amir) won the gold medal, beating USA’s Jeffrey Mike Louis (B-boy Jeffro) in the final.

A total of 99 athletes competed in the B-boy competition.

In the B-girl category, Johanna Rodrigues was joined by compatriots Sushma Satish Aithal (B-girl Sushma) and Siddhi Tambe (B-Girl BarB). None of the three managed to make it past the pre-seed stage.

Johanna finished 34th in the audition round while Sushma and Siddhi came in 48th and 59th, respectively.

China’s Qingyi Liu (B-girl 671) won the B-girl gold medal after the two-day meet after beating home favourite Ami Yuasa (B-girl Ami) in a tense final. Italy’s Antilai Sandrini (B-Girl Anti) settled for the bronze medal.

The B-girl competition was an 81-woman affair.

Breaking for Gold World Series 2023 Kitakyushu: Final rankings of Indian dancers

B-boy

B-boy Flyingmachine (Arif Chaudhary) - 59th

B-boy Tornado (Ramesh Yadav) - 62nd

B-boy Suraj (Suraj Raut) - 91st

B-girl

B-girl Johanna (Johanna Rodrigues) - 50th

B-girl Sushma (Sushma Satish Aithal) - 64th

B-Girl BarB (Siddhi Tambe) - 76th