A Bahraini Jiu Jitsu academy has created history by becoming the first club from the kingdom to ever win a team event at an international championship held on foreign land.
A 27-member team from Elements Jiu Jitsu Academy – which was established by multiple-gold medal-winning star Ali Monfaradi in August 2019 – was declared the champions in the team event at the AJP Tour Qatar National Jiu Jitsu Championship 2023 – GI and NO-GI.
Previous, Bahraini teams and academies – including Elements – have won team events at championships in the kingdom but this is the first time the feat has been achieved at a major international tournament held abroad.
“This is a huge deal for us!” Monfaradi, 29, who has won more than 200 medals in various competitions around the world since receiving his black belt in 2017, told the GDN.
“Especially, in the way that it happened. My colleague, Dante Cano (a Brazilian black belt exponent who coaches at, and competes for, the academy), told me before the tournament that he thought we had a chance of getting a shot at the podium.
“I told him not to get his hopes up too high because we were going to be up against some really tough teams like Qatar’s Vision Bjj, which is a massively-funded project, while others have government funding too.”
But Monfaradi, who didn’t participate in the tournament because he wanted to spend some time with his family and his new-born son, Faris, as well as taking a well-earned break after competing around the world for six weekends straight, was in for a surprise.
“Apart from the fact that I wanted to spend time with my two-month-old son and needed to take a break from competing, I also had to stay back because I was going to be the only coach present at the academy with all the others either coaching or competing in Qatar,” he explained.
So Monfaradi followed the weekend’s action on the tournament’s website, collating all the results as the one-day event’s bouts were completed one-by-one.
“Then, finally, I saw that the tournament had finished but we were in second place after what I thought was the final bout of the day,” he added.
That set the stage for a bit of self-recrimination, Monfaradi said.
“I was seething at myself,” he laughed. “Because this is one of those tournaments where, not only does a gold medal add 1,000 points to an athlete’s overall ranking, every medal carries a certain number of points that add to the team’s overall tally. Plus, you get a minuscule number of points for even participating.
“So I was mentally admonishing myself for not taking part in the competition, thinking that if I gone there and won, it would have helped our team win the trophy.”
And then came the high drama.
“I hadn’t noticed that the website hadn’t automatically updated since I had last checked it,” Monfaradi said. “And, at the venue, our team also thought that they had only managed to get second position.
“But, when the organisers announced the winners, it was Elements and everyone was so thrilled. Over here, I discovered my own oversight at about the same time so I was over the moon to discover we had actually won!”
The trophy was accepted by Monfaradi’s father, Seena – himself, a black belt and one of the head coaches at the Bahraini academy – who was one of the referees at the tournament.
“This was a collective effort,” Monfaradi said. “And every single member of the team deserves praise for the amazing show they put on. Even the kids who competed for us were brilliant and did so well.
“And, personally, I was so pleased by what happened, because of the fact that the team won without me. This goes to show that Elements isn’t synonymous with me – it is a community of very passionate staff, coaches, athletes and members.”
Now suitably refreshed after a break during which he managed to spend some much-needed time with his son and buoyed by his team’s outstanding performance in Qatar, Monfaradi is looking forward to his next assignment.
“I head off to Istanbul this coming weekend for my next competition,” he said.
“And the weekend after that will see me in another tournament. So, for now, I’m just going to soak in the pleasure of our success and the amazing experience of seeing this trophy take its place in our showcase at the academy.”
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