Claudio Franca Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Team sent two competitors from Santa Cruz, CA to compete in the Honolulu International Open 2010 IBJJF Championship held on September 4th; Nathan Mendelsohn and Jeremy Montes.
After a full day of competing in the brown belt ranks; Nathan Mendelsohn faced his largest opponent ever in the brown belt absolute. Digging deep and finding some extra gas; Mendelsohn won the brown belt absolute and will be bringing home the Honolulu Gold.
Also bringing home Honolulu Gold is Jeremy Montes who won his juvenile blue division; securing a triangle and then taking the arm-bar. Nathan Mendelsohn said “I’ve never seen someone improve so much so fast. It’s all because of his dedication and hunger to compete. He’s definitely going to be a black belt world champion some day. This kid is someone to watch!”
Looking up to Mendelsohn, Montes is working to maintain his momentum from the 2010 Mundial where he took silver after choking both of his quarter-final and semi-final opponents to sleep.
Both competitors show the OTM patch on their Gi’s as they displayed their prize; resulting from their strong dedication and training.
Also traveling from Santa Cruz were GFTeam’s Wallace Castro and Paulo Ceasar. The group spent the remainder of the week training and surfing. Honolulu Gold is great, especially when it means you can enjoy it with friends and stretch the summer out for one last week.