Fighter narrowlymisses Oceania gold

Palmerston North Brazilian ju-jitsu fighter Vaughan Antonio came agonisingly close to a gold medal in hot conditions at the Oceania wrestling and grappling championships in Sydney at the weekend.

Antonio won two silvers in the senior men’s Gi (uniform) and no Gi (no uniform) under 110kg open classes, but was only one point off winning the gold in the no Gi.

‘‘We were both reversing each other’s moves and moving quite well,’’ he said. ‘‘I wasn’t quite sure when I looked up at the points system. I had about a minute to go and the guy went into defensive mode.’’

He only had four fights because there were not a lot of people in his weight grade.

‘‘It was hard to get to sleep last night [Sunday] when I got back and relaxed. I was going over it in my mind.’’

In the open grade he experienced tough competition and enjoyed seeing what the international standard was like. ‘‘Some of them focus more on conditioning,’’ he said. ‘‘There was one guy who was like a big brick with arms the size of my legs.

‘‘They had to go all out; I don’t think anyone held back. I was pleased with the way I competed – that last point was the difference between silver and gold. It makes me more hungry for the next competition.’’

He said every tournament had different scoring systems and he was happy with his form and the submissions he used in his matches.

‘‘It was tough because you’re still adapting to the style pretty quickly,’’ he said.

‘‘The guys I came up against were all similar grading level. The main thing I found was the heat.

‘‘First up was the no Gi, and that was pretty hot and it took me a while to recover from the first match. Then I chucked on the Gi; it’s a lot heavier and a lot hotter.’’

His next big event is the Gracie Barra tournament in Auckland in March.

Antonio will do official training with his students at the UCOL gym in three weeks and will also be helping the Manawatu Turbos work on their conditioning.

The gold-medal winners in the Sydney competition qualified to go to the world championships in Russia, but there is still a chance Antonio could go as well.