Medal success at the Brighton Open!

This was the clubs first BJJ competition, with four of us competing on the day and we managed to bag one gold, two silvers and a bronze medal, pretty good going at our first attempt.

It was a very well run event, six mats running throughout the day and it was good to be back on the competition circuit, seeing a lot of familiar faces and making new friends, it's what it's all about. I've been away from competing for quite some time through work and injury and I was back in there, up against a superheavyweight, as we were the only two poeple in the old timers section.  Where are all the brown belts?!  The fight didn't go my way, he was far too strong for me, but I didn't get injured and my back was fine the next day. Now it's time to prepare for the Southend Open and hope there's someone in my weight division.

The standard of BJJ was very high, especially the kids matches, some really talented athletes out there on the mats.  It was also very inspiring to see Jack Magee's student Luis Coward on the mats, who received a huge round of applause from everyone at the event, a truly inspirational guy, I look forward to seeing him compete again soon.

Huge congrats to Nayden, Dylan and Harry who have broken their competition cherries and all had a great time and to Billy, Emily and Adrian for coming down to support the lads and to Emily for making awesome protein spiders and to Adrian for driving us there and back.  

To all the students that didn't compete but helped the lads prepare for the event, huge thanks to you all, it's a team effort and everyone's Jiu Jitsu has improved and now it's time to get ready for the next event, so more improvement is guaranteed.

Thanks to Lawrence Dutton and his team for organising the event, you all did a great job and to all the referees for giving up their time to make sure the event was such a success. 

It was a pleasure to see familiar faces Pippa Granger, Gus Oliveira, Jack Magee and Monstro at the event and to all the Checkmat competitors from various clubs, looking forward to Southend!