Team NY prepares for Worlds. Photo: Personal archives
Nova União’s training camp for the 2010 Worlds has ended. The activities took place in Dallas, Texas. The two-week training period counted black belts of the caliber of Robson Moura, Rodrigo Feijão, Marcelino Freitas and Bruno Bastos. Marcelino left early to finish up his training at NU Arizona with Gustavo Dantas, in the company of promising competitor Steven Rosemberg, who is raring to butt heads with the favorites in the lightweight division, as well as another promising fighter, Chris Westfall. The team has been going strong in other weight groups, like the roosterweight division, with the always-competitive Bernardo Pitel and the return of 1998’s world champion Marcelo Pereira. At featherweight the aforementioned Marcelino wants to rain on the parades of favorites Rubens Charles Cobrinha and Rafael Mendes. At middleweight, the team is banking on rookie Daniel Garcia and Diogo Almeida and Roberto Nery carry the team’s hopes at medium heavyweight. Now in the super heavyweight division the seasoned Bruno Bastos and rising star Ricardo Demente round out the team’s black belt roster. The duo promise to give Roger Gracie and Xande Ribeiro a run for their money and want nothing more than to shatter the dreams of winning a third absolute title. Rodrigo Feijão, who headed the training sessions in Dallas, comments on their expectations: “We expect the very best and we’re going in pursuit of medals in all belt groups. There’s no way for us to win the championship yet, but I believe next year we’ll have the means to go for it. A few revelations are cropping up and more athletes will come up from Brazil next year, too.”