Bia Mesquita. Flashsport.
Sunday, May 30th, José Corrêa Gymnasium in Barueri held the 21st edition of the Brazilian Nationals. Beatriz Mesquita became lightweight champion and absolute runner-up, firing up the crowd throughout her five bouts — especially the lightweight final versus Bianca Basilio. This was the 26-year-old student under Letícia Ribeiro’s first national title, and she shared some of her thoughts with Graciemag afterwards.
“It was an excellent championship,” Mesquita said. “It seems to have been the biggest one in history. There were many tough girls, and I’m very happy with my result. It’s very good to continue to have good performances in the absolute, having opportunities to fight against high-level girls of all categories. About the lightweight final, it was great. This was our fifth fight, and again I managed to impose my game and win for the fifth time. This time I was able to mount and sweep a few times to walk out as the winner.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t win the absolute this time around. Tayane [Porfírio] is also a young girl who arrived at the black belt doing great. What is important is to keep training and renew the strategies. They were three fights in the absolute and two in my category. In the absolute I got a submission in my first fight, which was against Carina Santi. Then I beat Claudia Doval by ten points. At the end I did the final with Tayane.
“I will take this week off for some active rest — recovering, but without losing focus. The World Championship is approaching, and before that I intend to compete at the San Diego Open, in California.”
So it seems we’ll get to see her again May 13th. Meanwhile, you can feast your eyes on Beatriz’s lightweight final win in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JesqUf30m-E
