Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s Faisal Al Ketbi continued his winning streak and won gold in the open weight brown belt division on the final day of the World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship on Saturday.
Faisal defeated Brazilian Marcio Andre from Brazil in a hard-fought grappling contest with the eventual decision being decided by one of the referees.
Faisal’s gold medal victory on Saturday brings his total tally to two gold medals. On Thursday, he won the gold medal for the brown belt 100-kg in a dominant submission victory. The total medals tally for Emirati fighters on the final day of the Open weight competition was three.
General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, watched the last day’s proceedings.
Shefaa Moosa Hassan secured the silver medal for the UAE in the women’s open white belt weight division with Mohammad Darwish getting the bronze medal in the open male white belt division. In total, Emirati contestants at the championships managed to secure well over 20 medals in total, making the competition a major success for Emirati fighters, and pointing to a very bright future for Emirati fighters in jiu-jitsu.
The final bout of the day saw reigning black belt champion Marcos Almeida up against Rodolfo Vieira in an all Brazilian line up, for the black belt open weight title.
Almeida retained his open weight black belt title for the third time in Abu Dhabi in a close contested matchup with Vieira, winning the bout by two points and managing to secure the title for the third consecutive year.
“I had a kind of give up thought in the end. However, I said, I’m going to try my last shot. It was really hard, my knee was all twisted up and in the last second I saw the referee giving me two points. I got the sweep and got two points for that,” said Almedia of his victory.
The five-day championship has been an overall major success with over 10,000 fans attending the events. The final day of the competition saw another lively atmosphere with the arena a complete sell-out.
— The writer is an intern with Gulf News
