Colombian couple wins Salon tango competition

Thirty-four-year-old Diego Benavidez Hernandez and 28-year-old Natasha Agudelo Arboleda defeated a couple from Venezuela, making them the first Colombians to ever win the event.But before the climactic championship final round, a couple from the United States took third.Brian Nguyen and Yuliana Basmajyan from San Francisco said they weren t sure they could place when they saw the talent of the other dancers. "Every year the competition really goes up. And this year we thought we were on the stage with some really good dancers. I mean really good. I thought anybody could have won. I thought the winners weren t obvious. But we were just proud to share

the stage with them. Really," said Nguyen.

Both couples in the finals had defeated 38 others pairs from different countries throughout the world to reach that point, and the competition came down to a nailbiting tie. The Colombians and the Venezuelans had to dance three tangos for the seven-judge panel to break the tie.

Hernandez said they were ecstatic. "I believe that this is the great world competition and everyone, as foreigners, like the local dancers, we hope to be world champions. I believe that we prepare ourselves throughout our lives in our hearts to be world champions. There are many championships in the world but there s nothing like being world champion in Buenos Aires," he said.

The victors, a married couple with two children, won $7,500 US and two tickets to Paris to dance the tango in an event in front of the Eiffel Tower.