Victor Estima European Champion 2012

2012 has got off to a great start with our Head Instructor Victor Estima winning the European Championships held in Lisbon, Portugal. He won 3 of his 4 fights by submission, including an inverted triangle choke to win the Final.

Gareth ‘Zangado’ Neale, Mark Picton,  Tomek Rolinski, Jamie Paxman, Jody Paxman and Tomek Slowinski all travelled over and showed great fighting spirit.

To cap the championships off nicely Gracie Barra won the Adults Team Trophy.

If you want to be the best, train with the best!

Victor Estima World Nogi Champion 2011

Gracie Barra Midlands Head Instructor Victor Estima has won the Middle Weight World Nogi Championship, on the 5th of November 2011 Victor fought his way through a very tough category to win his first World Championship. Everyone at the academy is very proud of Victor on this amazing achievement.

Photos by Cooperfoto

Gareth Neale Takes Gold

Gracie Barra Midlands coach Gareth ‘Zangado’ Neale has won the gold medal in the under 82.3kg brown belt division at the Swedish Open. This prestigious championship was held in Stenungsund on the 12th November 2011.
Congratulations to Gareth on this great result and well done to Tomek Rolinski for making the trip over and narrowly missing out despite showing some quality Jiu Jitsu.

Following his success in Sweden Gareth was awarded his 3rd stripe on his brown belt by World Champion Victor Estima.

Gracie Barra Midland’s coaches continue to get great results on the competition scene - if you want to be the best, train with the best!

Fantastic Results at the 2011 English Open

We had another successful day at The English Open Championships on the 27th of November. The event took place at the Dartford Judo Club and Gracie Barra Midlands Coach Paul ‘Paulinho’ Cole brought home the gold medal in the Brown Belt under 70kg division. Tomek Rolinski also took the gold, his first at Blue Belt. Jody Paxman won silver in his division after 5 tough fights then going on to fight in the absolute. Adam Kowalczyk also made the journey to Kent, he missed out on the medals but he, in the words of Paulinho, “fought like a beast”.

Congrats to all on a job well done, another great result for one of our coaches – leading by example. If you want to be the best, train with the best!