Rui Alves and his gold medal.
After the thrills provided by the blue belt contests, it was time for the purple-belts to enter the arena in Odivelas, Portugal. Split across two days, the purple belt brought highs and lows for some athletes, with glory reserved for a few who refused to give up.
In the men’s section, for example, Rui Alves of Alliance/Dream Art had an eventful run. After geting knocked out of the medium heavy division in the semifinals, Rui continued on with his mission in the absolute. After four extremely hard matches, including wins over Catriel Fernandes and Nicholas Magilic — gold and silver in his weight division, respectively — Rui became the absolute champion.
In the women’s section, held entirely this Thursday, Eleftheria Christodoulou’s was the big name in more than one sense. An athlete from ZR Team, she came out on top in the medium heavy and absolute divisions, each time forcing Barbara Bergbauer (Aranha) to settle for the silver.
Find the adult purple belt results below.
Adult / Male / Purple / Rooster
1 – Nathannael Fernandes – Alliance
2 – Diogo Pinheiro – Alliance
3 – Juan Jose Daniel Gimenez Junior – Nova União
3 – Tasawar Alamgir – Cicero Costha Internacional
Adult / Male / Purple / Light-Feather
1 – Andrew Soares dos Santos – Qatar BJJ Brasil
2 – Ronald Dias Alves – Nova União
3 – Leonardo Mário Pereira Júnior – Cicero Costha Internacional
3 – Thalys de Oliveira Pontes – Cicero Costha Internacional
Adult / Male / Purple / Feather
1 – Wilhiam Mateus Marques da Silva – ZR Team Association
2 – Martin Alonso – Brasa CTA
3 – Gabriel Mendes Malheiros – Alliance
3 – Rafael Alberto do Nascimento Miranda Lavrador – Carlson Gracie Team
Adult / Male / Purple / Light
1 – Jhonathan Pessanha – Alliance
2 – Yuri Gabriel Rodrigues – Nova União
3 – Rafael Silveira Borges – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
3 – Vinicius Bueno Coimbra – ZR Team Association
Adult / Male / Purple / Middle
1 – Enderson Dias de Almeida – Alliance
2 – Davi Vetoraci De Menezes – Top Brother Brasil
3 – Alex Sander Fonseca Massena de Lima – ZR Team Association
3 – Jansen Gomes Ramos – CheckMat
Adult / Male / Purple / Medium-Heavy
1 – Catriel Fernandes de Oliveira Rodrigues – GF Team
2 – Nicholas Maglicic – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
3 – Erol Bayraktar – Carlson Gracie Team
3 – Rui Alves Neto – Alliance
Adult / Male / Purple / Heavy
1 – Neocicero Barbosa – Qatar BJJ Brasil
2 – Christoffer Lie – Frontline Academy
3 – Krishnan Chauhan – Factory BJJ UK
3 – Salenco Steel Coltinho – Alliance
Adult / Male / Purple / Super-Heavy
1 – Lucas Valentim Alves Montalvão – GF Team
2 – Mikołaj Mazur – Frontline Academy
3 – Bryan Thompson – ZR Team Association
3 – Luizinho Da Costa Urolis – Focus Jiu-Jitsu
Adult / Male / Purple / Ultra-Heavy
1 – Kjetil Lydvo – Frontline Academy
2 – Anton Dmitrakov – Strela Team
3 – Joshua Ian William Gibbs – British Army BJJ
3 – Khachbar Magomedovich Khachilaev – Kristian Cestaro Jiu-Jitsu Association
Adult / Male / Purple / Open Class
1 – Rui Alves Neto – Alliance
2 – Nicholas Maglicic – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
3 – Davi Vetoraci De Menezes – Top Brother Brasil
3 – Rafael Silveira Borges – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
Adult / Female / Purple / Rooster
1 – Maria Eduarda Tozoni Ono – Team Marcos Cunha
2 – Sabrina Migliozzi – Infight JJ
3 – Fiona Ko – Art of Jiu Jitsu Academy
3 – Oleksandra Rusetska – CheckMat
Adult / Female / Purple / Light-Feather
1 – Yasmin Belmiro Pessanha – Nova União
2 – Milena Kaori Tanakura Sakumotu – Tree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
3 – Fiona Middleton – Roger Gracie Academy
3 – Roberta Medeiros – Alliance
Adult / Female / Purple / Feather
1 – Galina Duvanova – Alliance
2 – Karen Martinho Cerqueira Terra – Carlson Gracie Team
3 – Magda Krzyszczak – CheckMat
3 – Rafaela Alexandra Policarpo da Rosa – CheckMat International
Adult / Female / Purple / Light
1 – Brianna Ste-marie – Brazilian Top Team
2 – Maja Povšnar – Alliance
3 – Alanis Coral Santiago Betancourt – Unity Jiu-jitsu
3 – Carolina Kuwahara – Infight JJ
Adult / Female / Purple / Middle
1 – Fernanda Yukari Makiyama Cristo – Evox BJJ
2 – Caroline Rose-Marie Madeleine Prill – ECJJA
3 – Larissa Martins dos Santos – Alliance
3 – Laura Virtanen – Alliance
Adult / Female / Purple / Medium-Heavy
1 – Eleftheria Christodoulou – ZR Team Association
2 – Barbara Bergbauer – Association Aranha
3 – Maria Carolina Barón Vicentini – BARBOSA JIU-JITSU
3 – Thaís Galvão Lima – ZR Team Association
Adult / Female / Purple / Heavy
1 – Caroline Louise Kinnane – Roger Gracie Academy
2 – Letícia Cardozo de Carvalho – CheckMat
3 – Gabriele da Silva Schuck – Rilion Gracie
3 – Tamiris Fernanda da Silva – Alliance
Adult / Female / Purple / Super-Heavy
1 – Océane Jativa – Academie Pythagore
2 – Emily Cheyenne Valks – NS Brotherhood International
3 – Holly Felton – R1NG BJJ
3 – Rocío Martínez Montenegro – Gracie Humaita
Adult / Female / Purple / Open Class
1 – Eleftheria Christodoulou – ZR Team Association
2 – Barbara Bergbauer – Association Aranha
3 – Brianna Ste-marie – Brazilian Top Team
3 – Caroline Rose-Marie Madeleine Prill – ECJJA