Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy wins SJJIF Kids Worlds with stand-out performances

The AOJ kids at the tournament. Photo: Personal Archive

On Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 14-15, the Mendes brothers Rafael and Guilherme led their team to victory from big to small. The GMA Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy won another kids title at the SJJF Kids Worlds tournament placing first as a team.

They had 53 kids competing and we won more than 40 medals.

Getting the team trophy. Photo: Personal Archive

Guilherme says, “It is a great result for us and we are very happy, today we lead the best kids team in the World and we know that the best is yet to come. We are gonna change the sport, we will make more champions than any other academy has ever made, it is part of our plan for the future and we are working hard on it. We would like to thank all of our students and coaches from AOJ for the amazing team work. It is just the beginning!”

In the adult divisions of the championship two stand-out competitors placed first in their divisions. Blue belt Mason Monsevais won the super feather division with submissions in all four of his matches. Purple belt Rick Slomba won the feather division.

Mason Monsevais after submitting all four opponents for the gold. Photo: Personal Archive

The brothers have their eyes on these two students who came from Fresno, CA and Baltimore, MD respectively: “We would like to say congratulations to our students Mason Monsevais and Rick Slomba for the amazing performance during this whole year. They moved to California to train with us when we started AOJ, they train everyday four times day and are two of the many champions that we have for 2014!”