Al Ketbi hails teamwork as Baniyas land hat-trick of President’s Cups – and women complete the double
Faisal Al Ketbi led Baniyas to a hat-trick of Jiu-Jitsu President’s Cups at Zayed Sports City on Sunday.
The nation’s most decorated jiu-jitsu star led from the front at the Jiu-Jitsu Arena by winning his three fights against Brazilians Guilherme Guedes, of Sharjah, Catriel Rodrigues, of Al Jazira, and Yatan Bueno, of Al Wahda.
“The President’s Cup is the most prestigious domestic club title and we are absolutely delighted to win it for the third time,” Al Ketbi told The National. “As athletes, we are really proud to participate in this competition, regardless of winning the title.
“Not only that, as a team event, it brings a new challenge, meaning we have to depend on our teammates to win in order to become champions. We can say the success is because of the teamwork. For this, we need to bring a different kind of strategy and need to prepare the best combination to achieve the desired results from the seven different weight categories.”
Al Ketbi said the format of the competition provides the national team coaches with the opportunity to scout for players in the different weight categories.
“This year’s competition was staged in three different age categories U16, U18 and adults, which [helps] the national team coaches to shortlist the prospective players in the different age categories and weight divisions,” he said.
Al Ketbi also pointed out the challenges of fasting and competing during Ramadan.
“It is a big challenge as we had to compete against some of those who weren’t fasting during the day,” he said,
“We had to breakfast around 6.45pm and then compete at 9pm. It was hard but we managed to keep ourselves in good shape to compete. We had best preparation, best strategy and the best way to recover from every fight to maintain the perfect record in this prestigious championship for three years in a row.”
Al Wahda and Al Ain finished second and third.
Baniyas completed the double with the women’s team emerging as winners above Wahda and Sharjah Self Defence Sports Club.
“Honestly, winning the championship was an incomparable feeling,” said Baniyas’ UAE women’s international Maitha Shraim, who overcame her national team colleague Hessa Al Shamsi, of Wahda.
Abdulmunan Al Hashemi, chairman of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation, said to have the competition under three age categories was game-changer. “It provided an opportunity for the players to shine and the team’s technical staff will have drawn great insights into their players,” he said.