Brazilian competitors picked up all four black-belt gold medals at the inaugural Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi Fujairah Jiu-Jitsu Ramadan Cup on Friday.
The one-day event staged at the Fujairah Towers was the first event of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s 2017/2018 season ahead of a packed schedule during Ramadan.
Celso de Campos won the black belt 110-kilogram gold against Basel Fanous of Jordan while fellow Brazilian Andre Gomes Reis grabbed the bronze ahead of Emirati Yahia Mansour Al Hammadi.
Al Hammadi, last season’s most successful Emirati fighter who won a medal in each of the five Grand Slam events and took gold at the Abu Dhabi World Professional Championship, went down to a submission armlock by Reis.
Julio Junior took the black belt 77kg final against Vibhudatta Rout of India. Bruno Lima and Vinicius Ladeira were winners of the black belt Masters-1 finals 77kg and 85kg respectively.
The competition drew over 200 entries with 31 finals.
The Emirati fighters, who were the majority participants, bagged 17 gold medals followed by the Brazilians (six), Russians (two) and one each from the United States, Kuwait, Ukraine, Morocco, Turkmenistan and France.
One of the Emirati youngsters to impress was Humaid Al Kaabi, who made short work of compatriot Mohammed Al Kaabi by forcing an early submission in the juvenile blue belt 94kg final.
Humaid, 17, was returning to action after striking gold at both at the Jiu-Jitsu International Federation’s World Championship for Juniors and Aspirants in Athens in March and the Abu Dhabi World Youth Championship in April.
Next up is the three-day Al Ain Ramadan Cup exclusively for Emiratis from Sunday to Tuesday, followed by the annual No-Gi (without the traditional kimono) at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi on June 9 and 10.
apassela@thenational.ae
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