Bringing Home the Medals

This weekend saw a small contingent of five adult competitors from Gracie Barra Isle of Man’s Jiu-Jitsu Squad fight at the prestigious IBJJF European Championship in Rome, bringing several medals back with them!

This is one of the highest level tournaments in the sport and a highly sort after accolade for any Jiu-Jitsu competitor.

This is the biggest competition the team have ever entered and the results were extraordinary considering the level they were facing.

Alanna Pritchard became the Isle of Man’s first ever IBJJF European Champion on Friday winning Gold in her division. This is nothing short of incredible and ends her year of competing in the sport on a well deserved high. This saw her add to her British Champion title earlier in the year and has seen a meteoric rise over such a short period of time.

She is now at University in Liverpool and regularly training at Next Generation MMA under the eye of UFC fighters Molly McCann and Paddy Pimblett. 

Saturday saw the rest of the squad compete. Unfortunately for Myles Joughin it didn’t go his way and he lost out by one point in his first round in what was a highly competitive bracket.

Catherine Moor then came away with a Silver in her division after beating a rival from Roger Gracie Academy in the semi-finals. A great result for Catherine who has also had a strong year of competition.

Hayley Curtis faced the eventual winner in her semi-final of her weight division and lost out in what was a close match and ultimately led to her taking Bronze. However, she then entered the open weight category which saw her up against an opponent 20kg heavier in the semi-final and it was here that her hunger to win really showed leading to victory in that match and ultimately taking home a well earned Silver medal. 

The final division match for the Squad was Colin Everden who is one of the lead coaches at the Academy and has been concentrating on coaching for the past few years only coming back to competing this year. Colin is known for his takedowns and takedown defence and put this into good practice in the quarter finals of his division which saw him win on points after completing one of the best throws of the tournament! This secured a Bronze for Colin and was a great achievement.

Head Coach Conrad Roberts said: ‘For anyone who has been following our progress in 2022 you will have known that the IBJJF European Championships were what we were working towards after stepping up a gear at numerous points throughout the year. I am incredibly happy with the results which are nothing short of astounding and are testament to the squad’s hard work and commitment but also the coaching team including Mark Franklin, Callum Perry and Rob Matthews who have helped the competitors a lot with this one along with S&C programming from Dan Bonett and nutrition from Gianni Fabrizio which has become a staple of the training camps which I devise for the Squad.

‘A big thank you goes out to all the students and supporters back home in the Isle of Man who have shown such encouragement whilst we were here but also in the lead up to the tournament.’

The team would also like to thank The Crown Group Limited for their kind sponsorship for this trip and are keen to hear from any sponsors who may like to assist in future.