Phil Wizard finishes second at World Breaking Championships
Philip Kim, aka B-boy Phil Wizard, took second place at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championships on Sunday in Leuven, Belgium.
The Canadian was up against American B-boy Victor, whose real name is Victor Montalvo, in the final. The 2022 world champion Kim saw the world title slip away from him, beaten in a close duel which ended 2-1 in favour of the American. B-boy Shigekix, the stage name of the Japanese Nakari Shigeyuki, took third place.
B-Boy Victor, the new world champion, at the same time gets his hands on the Olympic qualification quota which was at stake at these Worlds. Phil Wizard will, however, have the opportunity to obtain his Olympic qualification by winning the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. Seven places for men and seven places for women will be allocated based on the results of the Olympic Qualification Series which will take place from March to June 2024.
Earlier on Sunday, Kim defeated B-boy Menno, also known as Menno Van Gorp of the Netherlands, in two rounds in the quarterfinals. The Canadian’s semi-final looked like a revenge duel, as he was pitted against B-boy Shigekix, a rival that the Canadian had defeated in the final of the World Championships in 2022. The battle was close, but Kim won the three rounds with five judges against four.
Sunday’s competitions began with a round-robin tournament in which the 16 dancers still in the competition after Saturday’s duels were divided into four groups of four, with the top two from each group continuing the competition.
On Saturday, Kim easily qualified in his duel to enter the Top 16 of the competition as he defeated the Greek B-boy Onel (Christos Dentis).
Philip Kim now has three World Championship medals to his name. In addition to the gold medal in 2022, he won the silver medal in 2021.
Earlier in 2023, Kim won gold at the WDSF Pan American Championships and also has two Breaking for Gold World Series podiums, winning gold at Montpellier, France and winning the silver from the competition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
READ: Phil Wizard on the artistic, cultural and sporting aspects of breaking
