Horlando Monteiro sets the gold medal triangle at the blue belt absolute final
Welcome to Lisbon!
It has been raining for almost a week now.
Last weekend, a huge storm closed down the Portela Airport and many planes were unable to land.
Nevertheless, more than 2,200 athletes are here to compete in the 2013 European Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
It’s the 10th Edition of one of the four most important competitions in the gentle art tournament calendar.
The first day was completely devoted to white belts and blue belts and they proved that does not matter which belt is around your waist when it comes to the desire to win.
It was a common scene this Thursday at the Casal Vistoso Sports Complex to see white belts with no degree yet realy upset and even crying about a recent defeat on the mat.
They should know that it’s a long way and many moments like that will come, and also many happy ones, when victory will smile for them.
Hanna Tibbling gets ready to choke Mille Petersen for the blue belt open class gold
In the sea of competitors that waved back and forth on the 10 mats, some caught the crowd’s attention.
One of them is Blue Belt Nicolas Plessis.
He was seen walking around with his black see-eye dog getting ready for his fight in the light-featherweight category.
In the end, won no medals, but earned the respect of everyone.
The first day of competition ended with the crowning of the two blue belt adult absolute champions.
In the male division, the laurels of victory went to Brazilian Horlando Monteiro.
With a very dangerous guard, the boy from Natal who just turned 18 tapped out his three opponents in the open class.
In the gold medal match, Horlando sinked another triangle choke to defeat Khasan Betelgeriev.
The gold medal came to heal the wounds of a 2nd place in the lightweight division, earlier in the day.
Now training with black belt Fabio Andrade, in Rio de Janeiro, Horlando also gave thanks to his professor in Natal, Jair Lourenço.
Team Lloyd Irvin is leading the adult male team’s competition
Among the brave ladies, Swedish Hanna Tibbling, from Check Mat, was dominant.
Age 31, she decided to register in the adult division because the Master category had no other competitors.
Tuff luck to her opponents, once Hanna went home with two gold medals hanging from her neck.
First she won the heavyweight category and them the absolute.
in the Open Class, she entered the mats four times and tapped out two of her opponents.
The gold medal was secured with a beautiful bow and arrow choke on Mille Petersen.
In the team’s competition, Team Lloyd Irvin finished day 1 ahead, with 23 points in the adult male division.
Check Mat is leading the adult female category, with 31 points, and Nova União won the white belt division (Novice) with 31 points.
The dawn of the 2nd day of competitions is upon us and as usual the best coverage will be on GRACIEMAG’s social networks.
Stay tuned and know all that is going on in Lisbon.
Here are the best images of Thursday.
The post 2013 Euro Open: Astonishing Images of A First Day of Gala first appeared on Graciemag.