Our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ladies made waves overseas last week at the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2019 and the ADCC trials in Poland. In Abu Dhabi on Thursday, brown belt Shantelle Thompson stepped onto the mats first for the team, in a first round match against current division champion Gabrieli Pessanha. Having come up against Pessanha many times previously, Shantelle did well to evade Gabrieli’s submission attempts, with the match going the distance in the end. Despite a loss for Shantelle (0-4,3 advantages), she applied what she learned from her previous matches with Pessanha and showed an improved performance in giving her opponent a tougher fight.
Shantelle’s second match in repechage saw a close match against Finnish brown belt Jonna Konivuori with no points scored in the match. Both women were at 1-1 advantage each, with Shantelle eventually sustaining the loss via a penalty. Shantelle finishes her UAEJJF season with a ranking of number one in Oceania and Australia in the female black/brown division!
Representing Absolute MMA in Abu Dhabi next up for the team was Coach Apryl Eppinger. In her first match, she faced off against Jane Minondo, a 4 year brown belt from Canada. Apryl controlled the match by stuffing Jane’s attempts to jump guard and attack in the closed guard. The match resulted in 0-0 with Apryl securing the win via advantages 3-1, through takedown, knee bar and toe hold setups. An amazing win for Apryl given this is her first international competition as a brown belt! Congratulations Apryl!
Apryl’s second match was against Brazilian black belt Larissa Paez. Standing with her, Apryl attempted to take down her opponent which failed, with Apryl then pulling Larissa into an open guard. From there Apryl was not able to maintain the guard, with Paez passing her to secure side mount and the submission.
Her 3rd match was against Julia Maele,a Black belt from Norway. Apryl and her opponent finished on equal points 4 – 4, with Maele having two advantages. The match was in 50/50 and Apryl tried to escape to achieve 2 more points for the pass, which she secured but not in time to achieve the points. Apryl finishes her UAEJJF season ranked as sixth in Asia! Amazing work Apryl, it has been wonderful to see you work so hard and we thank you for being a great representative for the gym.
On Saturday, in Poland, Coach Livia Giles achieved an amazing result in winning the ADCC Trials in Europe for -60kg! After 4 tough fights, Liv finished the final with an inside heel hook. After sustaining a knee injury in December, Liv has worked tirelessly at her rehab and training to achieve this result. A well deserved result for Liv in her fourth attempt to win a ticket to ADCC Worlds! We are so excited for Liv who is now the fourth Australian to qualify for the 2019 ADCC Worlds (and the fourth for the Absolute MMA team)! Congratulations Liv, you crushed it!
Written by Emilie Yap and Apryl Eppinger.
Photography: Babskie Jiu-Jitsu, Livia Giles, UAEJJF, Proud Brown.