Abu Dhabi: UAE’s Yahya Mansour, who bagged silver in the Masters 1 Brown Open category, bettered his performance in the Masters 1 Brown 94kg weight category by clinching gold on the final day of the Abu Dhabi World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Championship at the IPIC Arena on Saturday.
Mansour won the hard-fought contest by one advantage point after a scoreless deadlock. “I’m very happy to win gold especially in front of my home fans. It’s an honour to represent my country on the world stage,” said a jubilant Mansour, who had won gold here in 2009, 2012, 2015 as well.
“It was my toughest tournament because brown belt is never easy and I really had to work hard because the world’s best are here. But I stuck to my strengths and did well,” added the 31-year-old.
UAE-based Jiu-Jitsu instructor Ricardo Evangelista of Brazil defeated countryman Victor Silva in the +94 Black Belt category by a 6-0 margin to claim his maiden gold at the Pro World Championship. This season he had won three gold medals at the Grand Slams — Los Angeles, Rio and London — including two double golds (Open and Weight categories) in LA and London.
“We are good friends and I have known him for a while. The fight was tough as I had some strong fights in the Open and Weight categories – eight fights in total. That can be too much on your body,” revealed Evangelista, adding, “This is the first gold in this pro event and my previous best was three silvers. It took me five years to get my hands on the gold, so I’m really happy,” said the 30-year-old.
In the World Youth Championship finals held earlier in the day, United States’ Tiffney Barbosa got the better of Reem Al Obeidli of UAE in less than 15 seconds to claim gold in the 58.5kg yellow-orange-green belt.
The 65.5kg female yellow-orange-green belt title clash was an all Emirati final and Bashayar Matroosh beat Rouda Jabri by submission to clinch gold. UAE’s Maitha Sultan also claimed gold with a submission of Shamma Al Khaabi in the 51.5kg Blue category.
