Ju-Jitsu World Championships

When I first got here, I asked around to see if anyone knew of a jiu-jitsu school in the area. A coworker said he took jiu-jitsu lessons, but turns out the "ju-jitsu" that he does is slightly different from what I was looking for. I was looking for pure-ground fighting lessons - as in Gracie jiu-jitsu. There apparently is another form of ju-jitsu which incorporates stand-up karate like fighting and ground-fighting. Anyways, so the world championships were this weekend in Rotterdam so I joined my friend to go watch the last day of it on Sunday. There were 4 events that day: Men's 69 kilo and under, Men's heavy weight, Women's 62 and under, and Mixed duos. My favorite competitor for the day was Fedor Serov from Russia in the 69 and under category. He had very smooth techniques and pretty cool counters. No wasted movements. I was so disappointed when he lost his 4th match to Ferrie Hendriks of the Netherlands. I almost left until I found out he would be competing for the bronze, which he took in the end. My least favorite was the Italian. After his first win, he threw a kiss to the crowd and walked off with the helper girl in arm. Then in his match against Taiwan's Cheng-Chih Chi, his (multiple) injuries were so over-dramatized that it was like World Cup all over again.

The French had a really good day though. They took gold in 3 of the 4 categories, and a silver in the last. (I've never stood up for the French National Anthem so may times.) Even then, they lost to the Germans by only half a point (99.5 vs. 99). I guess they expected it, cuz they shipped over tons of supporters. All you could ever hear were the French cheering, even when it was French vs. Dutch. Where were the Dutch supporters?? The Dutch did pretty good that day too. A silver and couple of bronzes. I think they took 5 medals the day before so not bad.

Check out www.jbn.nl and www.jujitsu2006.nl for more on the championship.