Ryan Smyth Brings Home Bronze!
Ryan Smyth of the Atlantic Jiu Jitsu team in Sligo won bronze at the IBJJF European Jiu Jitsu Open Championships. This was held at the Casal Vistoso Municipal Sports Centre in Lisbon last week.
Smyth, has been on somewhat of a winning streak of late. In the Last 12 months he has taken a gold medal at the IBJJF London International Open, European Championships 2013 and the Irish Nationals. Smyth hoped to bring the momentum from his success in the last year to the European Championships of 2014.
The Sligo native battled hard against strong opposition on his journey to the semi finals only to lose out on the smallest of margins. However, Smyth surely proved himself to be among the best in Europe, giving his semifinal opponent as much as could be handled until the bitter end.
Placings
“I came to Lisbon for the Europeans last year and was able to win the gold. This year I came so close, but was denied in a closely fought match” Smyth said. “so, now I will go back to training more determined than ever. All you can do is train hard, give your best and never give up. Once you do that, the results will follow”.
One other Alliance Sligo team members competed in Lisbon. Dominik Szerzen. Unfortunately, he finished outside the medal placings despite performing valiantly on the international stage. Dominik vowed, to return in 2015 even better prepared than before.
After battling Europe finest in the toughest and most highly regarded BJJ tournament this side of the Atlantic. Smyth said “Thanks to all my training partners at Alliance who helped me get prepared during the Christmas holidays, many thanks to IT Sligo and the Knocknarea Arena for their continued support. A great many thanks to all my wonderful family and friends”.
For those unfamiliar, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a competitive sport and self-defence art based on taking your opponent to the ground, achieving positional control, and applying joint locks or strangles. This art has gained increasing popularity around the globe following its appearance on the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. After the success of BJJ in this mixed martial arts’ event, the number of practitioners increased dramatically. Today, numerous BJJ and submission grappling tournaments are held worldwide every year.
