Emma and Pat Baker with Mauricio Gomes
Combat Academy instructor Dave Coles made the relatively short journey up the M5 to compete in the Gracie Invitational European Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
Event report by Carl Fisher 24 April 2004
Brazil has the Mundials, the US has the Pan-Ams and now the UK has a BJJ event that stands head and shoulders with the big guns - The Gracie Invitational. The competition started in 2003 and was part of the SENI 03 event, the UK's largest martial arts and trade exhibition weekend in the UK calendar. With the success of SENI 03, brown belt Marc Walder, together with an army of helpers too numerous to mention (you know who you are) and sponsored by Evolution Fightwear, organised what must be the biggest BJJ event ever to be held in the UK.
The event attracted over 200 entrants, with a large scale GBUK presence, as well as Rio Grappling Club, Ze Marcello, SBG, Master Alliance, Hull Sport JJ and Saints BJJ; the event even attracted students from foreign soil with GB Lisbon and Renzo Gracie Israel stepping up to the centre of the mats. In addition to the competitors, the event had caught the eye of Onthemat roving reporter Gumby, who was on his first ever European tour and hitched a lift up to the event with Marc and crew to cover the event for their website. Referees included Roger Gracie, Roger Brooking and purple belt Neil Owen, who recently took silver at Pan Ams; team mate Chris Ollerton reached the quarter finals round of the masters blue belt heavy division in only his second competition well done! Mauricao Gomes was also in attendance to give support to the fighters and soak up the fun and games.
The event was held under strict CBJJ rules, which demanded a weigh in before the first match and instant disqualification if the competitor failed to make the weight; from then on the fighter was free from any more weigh ins. Organiser Marc Walder went to great pains to ensure a true copy of the BJJ events in Brazil and to get everyone to toe the line and this area was strictly adhered to throughout the day. The fighters were split up into adults and masters and the event had four mats on the go; held in a massive hangar style area at the NEC complex in Birmingham, the day began with the white belts.
Feather weight fighter Silvio Figueira from Ze Marcello stormed his way through his matches to take first place in his division, whilst the lightweight division's placings were all taken up by GBUK fighters; Ben Mallows of SBG dominated his weight class en route to an impressive first place in the middle heavy weight division. In the Masters division Hull Sport JJ's head coach, Mel Leathley, led by example and took the first place in the middle heavy division; in the women's division there were no opponent's for Mel's female fighters and so all three fighters shared first second and third after fighting each other. If there are any female fighters out there get in touch, as Mel's girls are tired of fighting each other! Shouts also go out to the young GBUK fighters, Samad Mohamed, Ricky Turner and Tyrone Elliot who all won their categories fighters of the future.
Time for the blue belts adults and in the feather division two fighters stood out from the rest of the pack, Ze Marcello's Danny Batten and Saints BJJ's Steve Heyes; Heyes swiftly despatched his opponents en route to face Batten in the finals and was neck and neck all the way and ended up with Batten the champion on points. The middle heavy and heavyweight division was dominated by GBUK fighters with Anthony Rode taking the middle heavy top spot and Shane Smith the heavy weight. Rode went on to the finals of the blue belt Absolute and lost to Ze Marcello's Enrique Santana.
In the Masters, the feather weight fighters thrilled the crowd with fast paced action all the way, with subs and sweeps coming thick and fast and ended up with Rob Lawlor at the top spot and GBUK fighters Mick Shore and Chris Brown second and third respectively. Heavy weight Dave Coles (GBUK) dominated his division and had some hard matches on the way to the top and Renzo Gracie Israel's Haim Gozali gave a good account of himself, finishing third, whilst the Open weight top spot went to Dickie Martin.
Now it was time for the purple belts, with all eyes again on GB Brum's mega talented Glen Brodrick to see if he could cut the mustard in this tough division; Glen whipped the crowds up in his first fight, winning easily and had the whole arena shouting and screaming their support in the finals of the +75, where he faced the highly skilled Sergio Lopes from GB Lisbon, with Glen pulling out all the stops to win the match. After a brief rest, Brodrick entered the Absolute division and once more had to draw on all his reserves of strength, technique and heart to beat his opponent's and take the top spot again, after a thrilling fight against another tough GB Lisbon fighter Ricardo Pereira.
GBUK brown belt Jude Samuels was due to fight an opponent from Rio Grappling Club but he failed to show leaving him winner by default and the crowds were deprived of one of the UK's first ever brown belt match let's hope we see him in action soon.
All the fighters that took part are to be congratulated on their skill levels and sportsmanship, win or lose, as well as sporting some eye catching red and purple gi's; the event arena also played host to self defence seminars as well as a martial arts demo, conducted by men in what can be only be described as parachute outfits! The Invitational was a great success for all concerned and I'm sure Marc and his team will be hard at work in preparing for SENI 05 and firmly cementing the UK as a tournament hot spot.
Results
White Belt Adult
Super Feather 64kg
1st Spencer Hewitt GB UK
2nd Ian Malone Ze Marcello
3rd Mumtaz-Ur Rahman Luiz Tosta Rio Grappling Club
Feather 70kg
1st Silvio Figueira Ze Marcello
2nd Steve Challener GB UK
3rd Stephen Newlove Hessle JJ
Light 76kg
1st Jason Ball GB UK
2nd Gareth Neale GB UK
3rd Alan Edmondson GB UK
Middle 82.30 kg
1st Tim Radcliff Ricardo De Silva
2nd Chris Wells Master/Alliance
3rd William Meehan
Middle Heavy 88.30kg
1st Ben Mallows SBG
2nd Sam Bradley GB UK
3rd Steven May GB UK
Heavy 94.30kg
1st Ian Elliott Rickson UK
2nd Rich Cody GB UK
3rd Aaron Goodman GB UK
Super Heavy 100.50kg
1st Ross Point GB UK
2nd Sam Howey Master/Alliance
3rd Matt Diment Hull Sport JJ
Super Super Heavy 100.50kg+
1st Gregg Rogers GB UK
2nd Mark Bottom GB UK
White Belt Master
Feather 64 kg
1st Jim Kiely GB UK
2nd Ben Jones Ze Marcello
3rd Adrian Clarke Extreme JJ
Middle Heavy 88.30 kg
1st Mel Leathley Hull Sport JJ
2nd David Iverson GB UK
3rd Mark Semmens GB UK
Heavy 94.30 kg
1st Michael Pascal GB UK
2nd John Ward GB UK
3rd Karl Anderson Tony Bebbington JJ
Juvenile Light
1st Samad Mohammed GB UK
2nd Rafael Tomarkin GB UK
Juvenile Heavy
1st Ricky Turner GB UK
2nd Anthony Griffin Tony Bebbington JJ
Junior
1st Tyrone Elliot GB UK
2nd Callum Clarke
Women's
1st Melissa Leathley Hull Sport JJ
2nd Maria Hildyard Hull Sport JJ
3rd Mandpreet Sangha Hull Sport JJ
Blue Belt Adults
Feather 70 kg
1st Danny Batten Ze Marcello
2nd Steven Heyes St Helens BJJ
3rd Tim Joblin GB UK
Light 76 kg
1st Enrique Santana Ze Marcello
1st Rafael Fishett Ze Marcello
2nd Andy Roberts GB UK
Middle 82.30 kg
1st Alex C Ferviller
2nd Oliver Jones Master/Alliance
3rd Luc Lamude GB UK
Middle Heavy 88.30 kg
1st Anthony Rode GB UK
2nd Steve Brand GB UK
3rd Terry Thomas GB UK
Heavy 94.30 kg
1st Shane Smith GB UK
2nd David Fowler GB UK
3rd Kevin Vickers GB UK
Super Heavy 100.50 kg
1st Elliott Chisholm Ze Marcello
2nd Chris Eastwood SBG
3rd Andy Crittenden GB UK
Blue Belt Absolute Adult
1st Enrique Santana Ze Marcello
2nd Anthony Rode GB UK
3rd Shane Smith GB UK
Blue Belt Master
Feather 64.kg
1st Rob Lawlor
2nd Mick Shore GB UK
3rd Chris Brown GB UK
Light 76.kg
1st Denis Kelly
2nd James Smart Dave Huntley JJ
3rd Chiu Kwong Man GB UK
Middle 82.30 kg
1st Steve Cowan Norfolk BJJ
2nd John Kennedy GB UK
3rd Jules Brose GB UK
Middle Heavy 88.30 kg
1st Simon Hayes
2nd Steve Finnan GB UK
3rd Anthony OHalloran Ze Marcello
Heavy 94.30 kg
1st Dave Coles GB UK
2nd Dickie Martin
3rd Haim Gozali Renzo Gracie Israel
Super Heavy 100.50 kg
1st Lee Needham GB UK
2nd George Jones GB UK
Super Super Heavy
1st Tony Bebbington Tony Bebbington JJ
2nd John Bow GB UK
Blue Belt Open Masters
1st Dickie Martin
2nd Simon Hayes
3rd George Jones GB UK
Purple Belt under 75 kg
1st Marcio Gomes GB UK
2nd Paul Bridges GB UK
3rd Ricardo Pereira GB Lisbon
Purple Belt over 75 kg
1st Glenn Brodrick GB UK
2nd Sergio Lopes GB Lisbon
3rd Marcus Silva Marcus Silva JJ
Purple Belt Absolute
1st Glenn Brodrick GB UK
2nd Ricardo Pereira GB Lisbon
3rd Sergio Lopes GB Lisbon
Brown Belt
Jude Samuel GB UK
GB UK 18 Gold, 17 Silver, 16 Bronze
Ze Marcello 6 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
Hull Sport JJ 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze
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