On Sunday 8th of March the South Pacific Trials were completed in Sydney, Australia. It was another exciting ADCC event leaving only the US trials to come on the way to the World Championships later this year. It was a well-supported event with more competitors than previous years. The atmosphere was great along with a real mix of competitors from backgrounds of BJJ, Wrestling and Judo. With a packed house of spectators along with everyone realising the importance of this competition it made for a great day. Two of the highlight matches would have to have been the semi final between Igor Praposchchikov and Priscus Fogagnolo. Wrestler against a judo player with Igor just scoring the winning points with a minute or so to go. It was a great physical match to watch that could have gone either way.
The other match was the 76kg final between Rodney Ellis and Dave Hart. These two have recently had some great matches in both gi and no-gi with Ellis narrowly winning a gi match a month before. Hart had previously beaten Ellis no-gi prior to that. Well this match didn’t disappoint with Hart continually going after legs and ankles on Ellis, who already had an injured knee from their previous encounter. The match finished with Ellis hanging on for the win but only narrowly. Both competitors showing great technique and ability and they are sure to continue these exciting matches for a long time to come.
The winners are as follows:
MEN’S
Under 65kg – David Marinakis
66-76kg – Rodney Ellis
77-87kg – Igor Praporshchikov
88-98kg – Anthony Perosh
99kg and Over – Denis Roberts
We would also like to thank all our generous sponsors,
Sinister Store
Urban Hotels
Thanks to all the competitors, spectators and volunteers for the day and we wish all of the qualifiers the best of luck at the World Championships later in the year.
