The UAE’s Faisal Al Ketbi put in a stunning performance to secure a world championship belt in the Male Brown Belt Adult Open Weight Category on the final day of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2014 at the FGB Arena.
Al Ketbi beat Brazil’s Marcio Andre to bring the title to the UAE.
Mohammed Darwish and Shefaa Moosa Hassan won the silver medal in the male and female White Belt Adult Open Weight Category, adding to the UAE’s overall tally.
Gabriela Garcia from Brazil fought off America’s Janni Larsson to earn the title of World’s Best Professional Jiu-Jitsu Fighter in the Female Brown Black Belt Adult Open Weight Category.
The World’s Best Professional Jiu-Jitsu Fighter in the Male Black Belt Adult Open Weight Category was won by Brazilian Marcos Almeida, who beat compatriot Rodolfo Vieira.
Amelia Liu from Great Brittan won her White Belt division, while Brazilian Fabio Alano took home the highest honour in the Male White Belt Adult Open Weight Category.
Brazil’s success continued with Pamela Ventura winning the Female Blue Belt Adult Open Weight Category along with compatriot Paulo Costa, who won the Male Blue Belt Adult Open Weight Category.
The Purple Belt championship fights saw Brazilians Tayane Araujo and Nicholas Meregali win their respective categories.
Abdulmunem Al Hashemi, Chairman of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation and President of the Asian Jiu-Jitsu Union, said: “It has been a fantastic five days of competition, starting with the World Jiu-Jitsu Children’s Cup and concluding with the adult competition.
“We’ve had over 2,200 fighters from 71 countries participate this year, with each fighter delivering their best performance on the mat. Their exemplary display of our sport only continues to build Jiu-Jitsu in the region and across the world.”
The championship celebrated its sixth edition with the theme ‘One World One Fight’.
More than 15,000 visitors attended the event and entered the raffle draw for some amazing prizes throughout the tournament, including a Jaguar XF 3.0SC Luxury and Land Rover LR2 HSE 2.0T from Premier Motors, and a dream vacation to the Maldives courtesy of Etihad Holidays.
In addition, online competitions were held for the first time to engage fans of the sport with best photo and video posts using the official Championship hashtag #WPJJC awarded cash prizes of Dh30,000.
The Instagram video of the tournament that garnered the most likes won Dh10,000, while on Twitter, two lucky winners won cash prizes of Dh10,000 each for the picture in the FGB Arena with the most retweets.
The winners will be officially announced today.
