Vic State Champs Report

What a long day! Over 400 competitors turned out this year for a crack at the title. They were pulling the mats up around Rick at 9pm as he won the final fight of the day to take out the White belt Open and complete a 8 fight winning streak for the the day. He eventually won 2 (or maybe 3) gold for the day. Big effort for the big guy and not without some resistance from the competition. Smithy did great work playing guard passer for most of the day, taking silver in white masters gi and gold in masters no-gi against solid competition. Nial has booked a ticket to Hobart if he chooses taking third in another tough white belt division. Nial was busting to try a flying arm bar and pulled it out in the semi-final. Marco won a heap of matches but eventually lost in the semi's, he showed some great wrestling skills standing and is a very game athlete. Dave won one and lost one losing the initiative early in his second match he fought hard to get offf his back but his opponent hung on to win. Klaus was also in control of his match until tapping to an armbar when he felt something "tearing"in his elbow. Soft option Klaus. I fought a stand up match for seven minutes eventually winning by advanatge to take Purple 97+ and lost my first fight in the open playing my well known guard game early in the match eventually losing 5-3. Ran out of gas big time due to a lack of preparation. But a great result for the club again. I am proud of the way everyone fought and conducted themselves. We stuck together and worked as a team. I'm sure some footage and photos will be posted about the net soon and check the afbjj website for full results.