Leandro in final against Marinho / Photo: Gustavo Aragão
The winner of the lightweight division at last Sunday’s Rio Open 2011 tournament, Leandro Lo (Cicero Costha PSLPB) took bronze in the absolute, a sign his Jiu-Jitsu is coming along nicely. At the last World Championship, last June, Lo ran into a wall only when he came up against runner-up Kron Gracie, which he addressed to GRACIEMAG.com as well.
“I’m really happy with my performance in Tijuca. At weight, all four matches went well, while the final was against Vinicius Marinho, who’s a tough guy. I feel I did well in the absolute too. Everyone in there was tough, and making it to the last three was cool. I wanted to go further, but I couldn’t get past Ricardo Evangelista, who is really good and strong and deserved to win the gold. This year of 2011 has been really great to me. It’s my first year as a black belt and I already picked up some important titles for my career, which is just starting,” said Lo, winner of the World Pro in Abu Dhabi (watch the final below).
My teacher Cicero Costha and teammates deserve all the credit, without them none of it would be possible. In June I went to the Worlds for the first time, I felt a bit of pressure and wasn’t at ease, I wasn’t calm enough,” he admitted.
“Either way, this loss (to Kron) served as a learning experience for future world championships.
“My goal is to continue participating at championships, since I love competing and don’t want to lose my competition rhythm,” he said in farewell.
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