SENSEI Lesley !Hoaeb and Ushidoshi Delano Müller left a lasting impression on all and sundry during the pair’s recent tour of North and South America.
The buccaneering duo were irrepressible, and proceeded to raid medal chests at three prestigious competitions held across the United States of America and in Brazil.
Their first encounter was the Battle of Atlanta world championship held between 16 and 17 June in Atlanta, USA.
Müller, the reigning Namibia junior sportsman of the year (52kg) won his world title fight in the Ring Contact Fighting Arts International (RCFAI) division against Oscar Solache (63kg). Both are black belt fighters in the open division.
!Hoaeb challenged German Taekwondo world champion Johannes Gottwald in a Friday night title fights’ showdown, falling agonisingly short of his objective when he lost out on points in an “extraordinarily close fight”.
A rematch has been agreed to for next year.
!Hoaeb and Müller followed that up by winning gold in a first-ever Sport Jiu-Jitsu competition at the Battle of Atlanta, organised by master Daniel Gimenez.
The Namibians also had the honour of meeting renowned martial artist Gary Lee, who has several movie roles under his belt, and holds a ninth degree black belt in karate.
Porto Alegre in Brazil was the next port of call, where they scored more success in the Azambuja International Jiu-Jitsu on 22 June. Here, both fighters again won their divisions, and received AZ Behring international trophies for their efforts.
Having gotten a feel of southern Brazil, the indefatigable Namibians set their sights on more medals at the Gladiator Jiu-Jitsu international championship held at the LTC sports complex in Porto Alegre.
!Hoaeb earned two bronze medals in finals against Gabriel Delgado and Vinicius Chaves Pereira, whom he faced in an absolute champion contest, while Müller won a silver medal against a participant from Uruguay.
The Namibian pair also made the Behring International team, and won a Lugar-Equipe trophy.
The championship was overseen by master Sylvio Behring. Müller was invited at this championship to attend the Abu-Dhabi Grand Slam world tour in 2019. He will be partly sponsored for this event, and this will be a huge honour for Namibia as well as open doors to the international arena for Jiu-Jitsu.
“This was a historic event for Namibia, as Namibians have never before competed in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on another continent before. Their achievements made a huge impact as they did extremely well in the Jiu-Jitsu Mekka,” said Müller’s mother and manager Anita.
The touring duo were invited to prepare for their fights with Olympic judo champion Mayra Aguiar at Sogipa under the watch of Brazilian judo Olympic team coach Antônio Carlos Pereira.
The Americas tour provided Müller and !Hoaeb invaluable experience, which they intend to put to good use during upcoming competitions, the first of which is the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ADCC Cabo Tormentosa NOGI in Cape Town on 12 August.
This will be followed by the Desert Storm competition – a national qualifier and title fights event – which will take place on 28 and 29 September.
Another notable tournament is the South African International PRO (UAEJJF) on 2 December in Johannesburg.
