NEGOMBO, SRI LANKA // Yahia Al Hammadi completed a double gold medal haul at the inaugural Asian Beach Jiu-Jitsu Championship after his teammate Faisal Al Ketbi conceded the final of the open weight division.
The two Emiratis had brushed aside all challengers to progress to the final from the two halves of the draw in the open weight division and Al Ketbi conceded the match to settle for the silver.
"It doesn't matter who won the gold as long as it was one from our team," said Al Ketbi who won his 94-kilogramme weight the previous night and was the favourite in the absolute class.
“Yahia has done extremely well this season and in this competition. He also had more fights than me in this Asian Championship and if someone deserved that accolade it was him.”
Al Hammadi had to overcome three fights to Al Ketbi’s two opponents in the open weight.
While Al Ketbi had to go the full distance in his two fights Al Hammadi, the winner of the 94kg-plus final, won all his three fights by submissions.
He took just 22 seconds to get Muhammet Adayev of Turkmenistan out of his way and even less time to outclass Lasantha Sanjeewa, the only medal winner in the championship for the host nation.
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Al Hammadi used his height and weight advantage to beat Japanese Masamoto Nishibayashi, the winner of the 56kg weight, to earn a passage to the final with Al Ketbi.
“It was very sporting for Faisal to ‘gift’ me the gold medal despite my insistence that he deserved it more than me,” Al Hammadi said.
“He [Al Ketbi] had to deal with a tougher draw and obviously he’s the star player in our team.”
The two medals took UAE’s overall tally to three gold, four silver and four bronze in the men’s division that drew more than 100 entries from 15 countries.
Korea finished second with two gold, two silver and four bronze followed by Iraq (1 gold and 1 silver), Jordan (1 gold, 2 bronze), Japan (1 gold, 1 bronze), Kazakhstan (1 silver, 1 bronze), Pakistan (2 bronze), host Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan a bronze each.
Al Ketbi won from Korean Kim Jong-bok on points 7-0 and Jordanian Zaid Granduke, whom he defeated in the semi-finals of the 94-kilogramme weight category, by advantage points 5-1.
The championship in Sri Lanka was part of a preparation for all the participating nations ahead of the Fifth Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam, from September 24 to October 3.
The UAE coach Ricardo Lima felt his team could have done better despite emerging the top nation in the men’s medal standing.
“You never can be satisfied with the results because you always expect more,” said the Brazilian.
“This championship was about providing a test for our players and it served the purpose and given us an idea of the competition in Vietnam. It definitely will be harder but at least we know where our team stands.
“It wasn’t a bad performance from the team to win three out of the eight gold medals that were up for grabs.
“The only weight division in which we failed to win a medal was in the 85kg and that’s because we had our main player (Khalfan Belhoul) injured. Now we have 45 days to work on the areas we need to improve and put the team in order.
“We travelled with 20 players but we’ll need to prune it down to 14 for Vietnam, which is the maximum. The rest will train on for the Grand Slam Los Angeles, which is one week before the Asian Beach Games.”
According to Al Ketbi, the UAE will also field a women’s team in Vietnam.
“They didn’t travel to Sri Lanka but we have some of the coaches here who got an idea what to expect for them in Vietnam,” he said.
The championship which is a dress rehearsal for the Asian Beach Games in Vietnam concludes with the third day’s No-Gi (without the traditional kimono) competition.
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