It’s the end of the road for Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystał (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA)
Jody Cundy CBE has had a ‘blast’ on Strictly Come Dancing 2023 – but unfortunately, the journey is over for him.
On this year’s series, the Paralympian was partnered up with reigning champion Jowita Przystał, who won the BBC competition last year with Hamza Yassin.
Sadly for the professional dancer, she wasn’t destined to reach the final for a second year running, with Jody being voted out in week four after landing in the dance-off.
Following the public vote, Jody and Jowita had to face off against comedian Eddie Kadi and his partner Karen Hauer, who also landed in the bottom two of the leaderboard.
First, the former pair performed their Salsa again, to Samba de Janeiro by Bellini.
Next up, Eddie and Karen gave their all to their American Smooth to Tom Jones’ Sex Bomb.
Karen Hauer and Eddie Kadi landed in the dance-off despite the 10 they received last week (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Luckily for the latter pair, their dance was a hit with the judges, who voted unanimously to save them.
Delivering his verdict, judge Craig Revel Horwood said: ‘For improvement and musicality I would like to save Eddie and Karen.’
Motsi Mabuse agreed, saying: ‘For me it was a very clear decision, one couple was much, much stronger. I would love to save Eddie and Karen.’
Next up was Anton Du Beke, who told the couples: ‘Well based on the dance off and the dance off only, I thought one couple danced very well and one couple had a bit of an off night, there were a couple of mistakes there so I would like to save Eddie and Karen.’
With three votes, it was confirmed that Jody and Jowita would be leaving the competition, while head judge Shirley Ballas revealed that she would have voted in line with her fellow judges.
‘I agreed with the Judges I would have saved Eddie and Karen,’ she said.
The couples are dwindling down! (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA)
Despite the disappointment, Jody told presenter Tess Daly what an amazing time he’d had on the series.
‘You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what on earth am I signing up for and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it,’ he shared.
‘And just being able to dance and do something I’ve never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person.’
Paying tribute to Jowita, he continued: ‘‘This person’s got so much energy, every morning like 9 o’clock we’ve got, start of training and she’s like BAM, like this, she comes into the room like an absolute cannonball and she just doesn’t stop the whole day.
‘And she doesn’t lose any faith, doesn’t lose anything, motivates me on to do more and more. So I’ve had an absolute blast.’
Jody thanked his pro partner for helping to boost his confidence (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
‘Twas an emotional goodbye! (Picture: PA)
Jowita similarly showered Jody with praise, telling her dance partner: ‘I cannot even describe how proud I am of you Jody, cause from Day 1 till now, it’s enormous improvement. And I hope from now on, when you go out, when you hear the music, you’re not going to hide anywhere.
‘You’re going to go on that dancefloor and you’re going to give it all. And I hope, one day when you look back at all of this, you will say to yourself, “I’m proud of myself,” because that will be my biggest achievement.’
Strictly Come Dancing returns next Saturday at 6.35pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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