THREE Inverell martial artists competed in the Australian Queensland Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) State Championships held at the Gold Coast on Sunday, May 15. While the Inverell fighters made up a group of 20 fighters from the Armidale region, the trio all managed to bring home medals.
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The fighters were from Nick King’s Lifestyle academy where BJJ is a new form of fighting.
“At the moment, we’ve got assistance from the guys from Armidale BJJ, and they send over one of their instructors, Justin Horne, who is a really good BJJ coach,” King said.
“He instructs a traditional BJJ class here in our studio.
The whole team did exceptionally well. The Armidale team got second overall on the tally board.
- Nick King
“We’ve been doing that for about six-months now, and they said it was time for us to have a go at our first competition to see where we were at.”
The team travelled to the Carrara Indoor Stadium to compete with about 30 other teams.
“David Farrell managed a gold medal in his weight class,” King said.
“Luke Buxton made it through to the finals and got a silver medal in the Gi Section. There’s another section called the No Gi Section, which is basically where you don’t wear a karate uniform, you wear something like a rashi.
“It’s from stand-up and it’s into throwing and takedowns and things, and he received a silver medal in that also.
King also medalled in the lightweight division.
“I was 80 kilo, within a week I dropped down to 74 kilo. I made it through to the finals and ended up getting a silver medal in my division,” he said.
King said he was very pleased with the results achieved in a completely different system of martial arts.
“We did all right,” he said.
“The whole team did exceptionally well. The Armidale team got second overall on the tally board.
