ABU DHABI // Nasser Omar Al Braiki came up short in his quest to add a gold medal to his four Grand Slam medals in front of his home fans.
The Emirati was successful in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and London, but had to settle for silver and bronze on the opening day of the eighth Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship at the Ipic Arena on Tuesday.
Al Braiki was edged out by Ruslan Murtazaliev of Russia by an advantage point in the white belt 77-kilogram division and lost to Olzhas Nurtakanov of Kazakhstan by submission in the absolute class.
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“I had to go through four fights in my weight class and three in the absolute class. It was too tiring,” Al Braiki said.
Meanwhile, Alyazyah Al Shehyari's hopes of a first international gold medal in the juvenile category were dashed by Alexia Paiva of Angola.
The Emirati was forced into a submission with a minute left in the blue belt 61.5kg category among the rescheduled finals for the blue and green/orange belts of the inaugural Abu Dhabi World Youth Cup.
“It was my last chance to win a gold in the juvenile division,” Alyazyah said, adding Alexia “was strong and powerful physically, and used that to good advantage over me.
“I enjoyed my fight and will take this experience to the next level. Maybe I will come back strongly in the next competitions. I will keep training hard. I will be moving to the adult category so the challenge will be more from now on.”
The Emirati juvenile girls, however, won 10 of the 13 finals in both the blue and orange/green belts while the boys took five out of the 14 that up for grabs in the same categories.
Maitha Abdulla, 16, was an impressive winner over Delfina Francisco of Angola by submission in the blue belt 56.5kg final.
“I have competed in the Abu Dhabi Kids Championship twice previously and won gold both times, but this was a lot harder as I had to go through four tough fights for this medal,” said Maitha, who is also a member of the UAE judo team in the juniors.
“I enjoy doing both. Now I switch to judo to prepare for the upcoming IJF competitions in Hong Kong and Macau in June and July, and the Asian Juniors in India in September.”
Maitha has participated in the IJF European Open Cadets in the Czech Republic, Asian Juniors in Thailand, and the Junior World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Another Emirati to excel was Asma Subaihi. She got the better of Angelina Sinistina of Uzbekistan by a unanimous points decision in the blue belt 66.5kg final.
The championship main for men and women continues for a second day on Wednesday with the action on the mat starting from 10am.
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