Katikati club brings home 17 medals
Asmall team representing Katikati-based Global Jiu JitsuAcademywon17 medals at theNZOpen 2020 Jiu Jitsu Nationals held in Auckland on Saturday.
Thiswas the largest grappling event of the year represented by over 700competitors and 78 clubs nationwide.
The Katikati club entered 21 athletesmadeup of kids, teens, adults and masters winning two gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals. The clubwas8th overall on team points out of 78.
For the last six weeks the club has been preparing by trainingupto six days perweek with aheavy schedule that involved a combination of specific fitness and conditioning, mental preparation, drilling, wrestling and rounds and rounds of sparring. The process is not easy anddemands on each athlete are huge in terms of time, commitment, dedication and resilience, which combined is often harder than the tournament itself.
Amongthe team of 21 there were two over 50 masters athletes, locals Darren Maguire and Andre Prassinos. Both thesemenarenewto the sport andmanaged extremely well to juggle the significant training demands, niggling injuries, aches and pains with family and work commitments.
The tournament itselfsaw both menplaced in different divisions due to weight, however as there were no
other over 50s in their respective divisions, they were merged with the master 30 to 40+ divisions.
Let’s just say they gave those youngmena big fright as Andre went on to submit both of his opponents to win gold, and Darren submitting one of his opponents, to scoop a bronze medal. Bothmencompeted with their kidswhomalso took medals on the day.
Overall the entire team performance was amazing as were the results and for a small club based in Katikati, it certainly held itsown on anational scale.
Resultssummary— Kids: 1Tytan Tewhakaara Silver; 2TyCampbell Silver; 3Marlee Campbell Silver, 4 Sierra Prassinos Silver, 5Dylan
Prassinos Bronze, 6Campbell Te ManaHansson, Bronze, 7Dylan Layne Bronze, 8 Jamahl Ormsby, 5th Place. Teens: 1 Jarna Kidd Gold, 2 Sean Maguire Silver, 3Arama Campbell Silver, 4 Eden Pointon Silver. Adults: 1Daniel Layne Silver, 2 Israel Ellis Silver 3Russel Keenan Silver, 4Garth Amrein Bronze, 5Ryan Leach 4th, 6 ManuMand5th, 7 Suraj Singh 5th.
Masters: 1Andre Prassinos Gold, 2 Darren Maguire Bronze.
Wewould like to thank all of our parents and themanyin the communitywhocontinue to support our athletes and the club, andwelook forward to further developing great contributingmembersof the community with your help.
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