Saturday June 25 was a huge day for GroundControl. It started with the BJJ nationals run by Douglas Santos and Paulo Sorisso. Due to some event clashes we had a small bit perfectly formed team this time round from GC auckland, including Jono McFarlane, Travis Singh, Matthew Tusa and Andrew Davis. Andrew, Matthew and Andrew all acquitted themselves very well against tough opponents. We saw some great skills from these three, one of whom lost by an advantage to break a nil nil score, and another of whom came very close to winning points at the last minute. Meanwhile Jono made good use of his attributes to move through the heavyweight division and take gold! Congratualtions to Jono who is still at the start of his BJJ career – we are excited to see what you’re capable of with even more technique behind that brawn!
It was great as well to see our good friend Karl Norton Sensei from Maai Hyoshi dojos enter his first BJJ tournament. Karl performed very well against an opponent with much more competition experience and we can’t wait to see him at future comps. Also fantastic to see Serina Cole from our sister Machado club on the north shore (Submission Martial Arts) take another gold medal to add to her growing pile.
Travis with his opponent after the match.
Thoroughly impressive on the day were the Hamilton grapplers. Our old friend Carlo moved through some stiff competition to take gold and the white belts racked up a third and second place as well. And special mention must be made of GC Hamilton BJJ and MMA coach Travis Browne. Travis looked to be down and out in his purple belt match as the clock wound down to a minute to go with Travis at a significant points disadvantage. Giving up is a concept that somebody forgot to explain to Travis and as the clock ticked down he pulled off a spectacular last minute reversal to go immediately on attack and finish with a text book far side armbar! The crowd goes wild!
Next stop, the Will-Machado Gathering in Melbourne in September. Look forward to seeing folks there.