Team success at European championships

MEDAL success for Frome’s local Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team, Gracie Barra, swept up multiple podiums during the European Championships last month. 

The adults and masters European Championships was held at the WV Active Aldersley Sports Village in Wolverhampton on Sunday 29th September. 

The GB Frome team took their largest team to a competition to date, with many students embarking on their first competition outing. 

Callum Swift, coach at Gracie Barra Frome said, “First out on the mats was experienced competitor Paul Dixon, who was competing in a heavier than normal category due to an inability to find him opponents at the correct division. 

“Despite this handicap being against him, Paul put on an amazing performance, achieving one of the quickest submissions of the entire tournament with a ‘flying armbar’ at 17 seconds. Final result was a Silver medal for  Dixon, who later went on to compete in the Gi absolute category [no weight limit), but was unable to overcome the up to 40kgs weight disadvantage against some of the other competitors.

“David Strickland and Louis Curtis sat at opposite ends of the same bracket for the Masters (1) middleweight white belts division, and despite giving it their all, shared a third place step on the podium.

“Never one to spare the excitement, Curtis pulled out a last submission victory in his first fight after trailing for the entire round to move on to the next tier of the division. Strickland was knocked out of finals contention rear-naked choke from the back. 

“Mike Williams also made his maiden outing as a white belt. In the final, Williams came home with a silver medal having fought off submission attempts for the entire round, and also an additional runner-up prize of a shining black eye.

“Despite being one of the most junior of GB Frome competition team, having only training with team since June, Josh Payne managed to leave with a bronze medal in a tough division, along with some lessons he gained which he can build on for future competitions.

“Stand out performance was from Ian McNerlin, who was looking to improve on his previous medal success, having claimed Silver at the Somerset BJJ open last month, where he contested a final again ex-English rugby international, and Bath veteran, Duncan Bell. McNair put on a dominate performance in the gold medal match, not surrendering a single point to his opponent, but was unable to get the submission finish. Despite this, McNair stood with a beaming smile of the top step of the podium with his new European champions medal around his neck.”

Coach Callum Swift also entered the arena as a competitor in the brown belt devision contesting the super heavy weight category, having moved up a weight class due to insufficient numbers at his natural ‘heavy weight’ category. He said, “With a slow start in the final I managed to secure a simple throw to bring my opponent to the floor, before securing a controlling position and applying the ‘clock choke’ which uses the opponents kimono uniform to apply pressure to the neck till they either submit or pass out. With winning this gold medal, I also continued to the absolute weight class category and secured another gold medal with an outside leg trip takedown.”

Along with Gracie Barra Frome’s individual medal success, the ‘Gracie Barra’ competition team, which consists of all Gracie Barra students in attendance, took home the first place team trophy. 

As an additional honour, coach Cal was invited up on the podium by the event organiser to accept the trophy on behalf of the entire team. 

He said, “This is the highlight of my Jiu-Jitsu career so far, being able to represent all the hard working professors, instructors, coaches and students that make Gracie Barra the most successful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teams worldwide.

“This success is a result of months of hard work from my students, and we are not going to stop here. We have recent moved to a new full training facility located in a new industrial unit at Commerce Park in Frome. This means we can now offer more classes for our students, including the introduction of our first kids’ classes in Frome.

“If you would like more information about the new Gracie Barra Frome School, or free 1 week trial offer we offer to all new students, please visit www.gracie barrafrome.com, or find us on social media.”