Blue belts face off. Photo: Erin Herle
The much anticipated showdown between top teams Alliance and Atos has already begun after the very first day of the 2014 World Championship on May 29 inside the Long Beach Walter Pyramid in California. The two teams scattered the results page as the white belts for male and female, male blue belts and two purple belt male divisions established initial team scores.
So far the points for the male adult team category are as follows:
1 – Alliance – 38
2 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 37
3 – GF Team – 19
And for the adult female team category:
1 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 16
2 – Gracie Barra – 14
3 – Gracie Elite Team – 13
The white belts ended the day in the novice team category as follows:
1 – Alliance – 21
2 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 16
3 – Gracie Barra – 15
In some cases, members of the same team fought each other rather than closing out. Often times the athletes will let teammates pass whether they train with them every day or not. In the blue belt light-featherweight category, Mason Monsevais under the Mendes brothers at Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy met Pablo Mantovani Dutra under Gustavo Campos in the final. Pablo took the gold after a referee decision.
Spencer Nogawa against Ruben Coronado. Photo: Erin Herle
Another Atos match-up came in the featherweight category between Ruben Coranado under Andre Galvao at Atos in San Diego, CA and Spencer Nogawa also under the Mendes brothers at Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Spencer was able to take the win by points and also defeat another Atos member in the final, Pedro Oliveira Crixel also under Gustavo Campos, for the gold.
Age was more than just a number as many newly crowned world champions are also too young to be considered an adult. Mikey Musumeci conquered the purple belt light-featherweight category at seventeen and was even promoted to brown belt by Guilherme Mendes on the podium. Another young one is Luan Gustavo Frasson of Zenith BJJ who won the blue belt lightweight category at the age of seventeen. Spencer Nogawa is a bit older at the age of eighteen.
Luan Frasson. Photo: Erin Herle
You can see the full results of the first day of the 2014 World Championship here.
To see full photo albums, visit our facebook page albums here.
