A BRAZILIAN jiu-jitsu competitor who only took up the sport last year has completed a clean sweep of state and national titles, capping an extraordinary year of dominance in the sport.
Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’s Kris Tonner won two gold medals at the West Australian No-Gi state titles last weekend.
He had already won titles in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia, plus the ACT title, as well as the national title.
Across the year, Tonner won 20 gold, four silver and six bronze medals, and finished as the No.1 ranked Masters Athlete White Belt in Australia on the AFBJJ Rankings.
Tonner said he first got into jujitsu after taking his son to train.
“He was doing taekwondo and because of COVID, it got shut down,” he said.
“My plan was to go and do taekwondo with him but some people from work told me to take him to jiu-jitsu.
“I took him down and he was doing it for six months before I thought I might give this a try.
“I’ve been doing it ever since and I haven’t looked back.”
Tonner, who has now been training for almost 18 months, said it felt “great” to come away with a clean sweep of titles across the country.
“Those two final matches at the WA titles were the hardest fights I’ve had all year,” he said.
“He was so tough I couldn’t find a way to submit him and ended up winning it on points.
“I’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices to get the wins. I’m up at 6am every morning with the coach, and all the travelling has been pretty expensive.
“I’m going to try to back it up next year. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to every one of them, but I’ll try.”
Tonner said he had learnt a lot from both wins and losses this year.
“There’s so many different styles, body types and fitness levels, you have to train lots of different styles to prepare for the big tough guys and the little fast ones,” he said.
“I just go out there and try not to lose. A lot of people go in there wanting to win but I’m just trying not to lose.
“I have lost a lot of fights, I have to admit, I didn’t win them all, and from those losses I learnt the different approaches to different styles. I also learnt how important preparation is.”
