TALENTED teens have once again tap danced their way to the top of the world, defending their titles to be crowned champions.

Youngsters Kai Scanlan, Adina Nyahwa, Maddie Rogers, Sophie Groves and Jordan Humphrey joined Tap Attack, the official England Tap Team, at the International Dance Organisation’s 2014 World Championships in Germany.

Under the watchful eye of the international tap dancing world, the 46-strong team fought off competition from around 2,000 dancers from 18 countries and proved they were a force to be reckoned with at the competition – now in its 18th year – earlier this month.

The team built on the success of last year’s gold rush, when dancers scooped up six gold medals, and set out to defend their titles with determination and ambition.

Coached by Jo Scanlan, a world record holder in her own right, and James Doubtfire, resident director of the world famous Tap Dogs, were incredibly proud of their team.

Jo said: “This amazing team have worked hard to prove last year’s success wasn’t a one off. I am incredibly proud of every one of them.

“Swindon had the most amount of dancers from one town, proving we are a very talented town.”

The adults defended their title in the highly competitive Adult Formation section with a show-stopping and stylised Alice in Wonderland routine, in honour of the centenary of Lewis Carroll’s classic books.

Adina placed fifth in the Adult Female section, while Kai Scanlan snatched the world title in the Junior Duet section – retaining the title for England.

Maddie also celebrated success, placing fourth in the Junior Female solo section.

Last year, Swindon was well represented with Adina Nyahwa, 19, Matt Pidgeon, 16, and Kai Scanlan, 12, all joining the team and bringing home medals.

At the time, James Scanlan, managing director at Tap Attack, the dance school based in Nine Elms which helped to train the youngsters for the championships, said: “It was outstanding. We’re different to other teams and we only rehearse for a few hours a week compared to how others can rehearse every day, so to come away with six medals at the world championships is wonderful.

“We were also a self-funded team so when they were not training they were out fundraising, bag-packing and washing cars to raise money to fund the trip.”