2015 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Intervarsity
A team of ten, 7 men and 3 ladies, made the journey to DCU to represent AIT at this year’s Brazilian Jia Jitsu All-Ireland intervarsity championships. The team has been training consistently since September and this marked the competitive debuts for several members, with the majority of the remaining team members having debuted successfully the previous month at a smaller scale local competition. We had 7 competing in the beginners -1 year experience section, 2 in the intermediate -3 years’ experience section and 1 in the advanced 3years + category.
In the under 1 years ladies open weight division we had Shauna Horan, Cathy Jordan and Roisin Hannon in action. All 3 fought exceptionally with Roisin losing a controversial “sudden death first take down wins all” tie-breaker after her semi-final went to a time limit draw. Cathy and Shauna met each other on the opposite brackets semi-final, it was a closely contested match up with Cathy coming out on top. Cathy went on to face her Dublin rival in the final and despite being 30kg lighter, went the distance and again a first take wins tie-breaker was necessary where her opponent came out on top. This left Roisin and Shauna to compete for the bronze medal where another close contest saw Roisin edged it after a tie-break.
The men’s under 1 year category was quite unique in that it saw the organisers extend the invitation to the ladies to compete in their respective weight categories, the offer to test their skills against the men was greeted with enthusiasm and was taken up by all 3 AIT ladies. Cathy was first up to test her skills with the lads and wasted no time in executing her strategy and dominated the contest and took the win. Roisin was next up against her male opponent, who was looking quite apprehensive having just watched his teammate taste defeat to a member of the fairer sex. This was a slightly more closely contested match-up, but the technical superiority of the Roisin saw her win decisively to book her quarter final spot. Shauna gave a fine display in her opening match against her opponent, but came up short against the Dublin man who would go on to take gold in the division. The semi-finals was to prove a bridge too far for both ladies as they both lost their quarter final bouts but gave fine accounts of themselves but ultimately came out second best. We had James Hopkins and Paolo Pidello in the -75kg under 1 year division. James was unlucky in his quarter final and seemed on the verge of gaining a win as he had a tightly locked submission in place, but credit to his opponent who showed tremendous resolve to battle out of the position and the contest went to sudden death first take down where James was aggressive in looking for the finish, but was countered and his opponent saw his hand raised and progressed to the semi-final. Paolo was next up and the Italian was his trademark composed self and caught his opponent with a beautiful arm lock, forcing his opponent to submit and Paolo progressed on in the division. As there was 6 competitors in the division, the organisers decided to have a “round robin” system with the 3 remaining competitors. After a back and forth opening contest there was no separating Paolo and his opponent who went to a tie breaker, where unfortunately the AIT man came off second best. After a quick turnaround, the Italian man was back up again, but was beaten when his opponent sank in a chokehold, leaving Paolo no option but to submit. In the remaining under 1 years division we had the first of our 2 Finnish team members in action as Jyri Korpi stepped on the mat. In his opening contest he was dominant and secured a submission victory at the 2min 30 seconds mark. Ultimately he came up short in the final but after a close technical battle, but securing a silver in his competitive debut is a fine achievement.
