Golden tournament for the Arknell crew
Academy take Cork Open by storm
THE Arnkell Jiu Jitsu Academy took the the 2018 Cork Open by storm at the weekend as they secured four gold medals and scooped the overall best group having amassed more points during the competition by any club.
Coaches Dean Barry (two) and Brian Kelly (one) managed three medals between them, while Chris Nicholson had to battle through five matches to get his hands on the gold.
Barry was delighted for all his competitors as the club’s stock continues to grow and it keeps preparing them nicely for the prestigious IBJJF International Open in Dublin.
Barry and Kelly proved again that they weren’t just excellent coaches as they came top of their own classes but pride of place belonged to Chris Nicholson.
‘That’s something (fighting myself) that I really (try to do). It’s such an important part of the club - it’s all well and good sitting back and watching everyone training and telling them to train hard and put the extra work in but I think you need to lead by example. There’s lots of clubs and sports in general where the person in charge wouldn’t necessarily lead the lifestyle that they’re trying to teach. I’m only 29 as well so I can still compete at a good level and the same with Brian.
‘It was excellent for Chris. He’s had a few silvers and bronzes recently... there were 30 people in his division yesterday and all his matches were pretty much five minutes long so he had to battle it out until the end so I was delighted for him.
‘He trains there pretty much every day and he shows up, puts the head down and goes at it so I was very happy with that and more so than myself of Brian.’
Barry is hoping that Cork Open will have whetted the Academy’s appetite with the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght set to host Ireland’s maiden IBJJF event - the holy grail of Jiu-Jitsu.
‘There’s a committee called the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation and they run all the competitions in the world and this is their first ever event in Ireland. It’s been a long time coming. Everyone’s been waiting for the last three or four years to see if they’d sort an event here and they’re finally coming so that’ll be the biggest event to date in Ireland.
‘I’ll hopefully hit the 20 mark (of members competing). We’ve a lot of people who do Jiu Jitsu as just a hobby or to stay fit so maybe a third of our members would be competitive and would travel for competitions.
‘From my group, I’d be hoping to take five or six gold medals. If we bring 20, I’d expect at least five gold medals or something close to that.
‘There’s always going to be tough divisions and in some divisions you might have 50 or 60 people in it. You don’t get a second chance either because if you lose your first match, that’s it - you go home.’