MILDURA’S Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community has cause for mass celebration after last weekend’s enormous medal haul from the AFBJJ Australian Jiu Jitsu Championships that took place at Melbourne Sports Centre in Albert Park.
The Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym walked away from Victoria’s capital with eight national champions in what was the largest ever event for the sport held in Australia with almost 3000 competitors across the three day nationals tournament.
Fifteen athletes represented Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ranging from kids, teens, adults and masters.
The martial art masters returned from the nearly 550-kilometre trip with a tally of eight golds, eight silvers and 10 bronze medals.
“It was the biggest competition that they’ve held in Australia to date,” said the gym’s coach and owner Luke Burnham.
“It was a pretty hectic and successful weekend.”
Burnham commended the sheer dedication of his trainees to their craft as his gym provides a selection of pathways for individuals.
“I think we’ve got a good mix at our gym of what we call lifers that are just there to have fun and we’ve also got guys that want to take their competition seriously,” said Burnham.
“So, we have avenues there available for them, we run pro sessions, comp classes and things like that, they’ve got plenty of opportunities to put in the hard work and they do.
“Those people that won, there was no fluke that day, they work extremely hard, most of them train six days a week, multiple sessions a day, so it was good, and we know when we have a comp coming up like that, we focus a lot for those guys as coaches we turn up for them which is important.”
Among the Mildura cohort of medalists was white belt Evan Memery who collected two golds in the masters gi and no-gi ultra heavy weight brackets after just 14 to 15 months of training.
Memery also collected a silver and bronze in open weight adding to his podium places for the championships.
Fellow Mildura master contender and blue belt Kristopher Tonner claimed a gold, silver and two bronzes despite pulling his hamstring on the very first day of competition.
Tonner has been with Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for three and a half years.
In the adults division Raiade Kassim, a French backpacker who joined Burnham’s gym 15 months ago, secured gold in comfortable fashion during which was his first official competition as a blue belt.
Teenager and Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Indigenous scholarship athlete Tyler Carter won a gold no-gi medal as well as a gi bronze in a heavier weight category than she normally competes in.
“She’s a super, super future talent,” said Burnham. “Hopefully we’ll get her overseas at the end of the year for a world title.”
Constantina Rudkin caused a monumental upset in her 11 year old gi category, beating the daughter of famous Australian Muay Thai fighter, kickboxer, boxer and 10 time world champion John Wayne “The Gunslinger” Parr, Jemma on her path to a gold medal.
“She smashed both of her opponents winning both by submission getting a gold medal,” said Burnham.
“And then she got silver in her no-gi.”
The two young Singla brothers, Rayne and Reid, both brought gold medals back to their family in Mildura.
Reid also picked up a silver medal in his no-gi grey belt nine year old bracket.
Other medalists included Feliciana Rudkin with two bronzes, as well as Elijah Southwell and Scarlet Southwell also standing on the third place podium.
Indigenous athlete Sieannah Spencer stacked up two silvers as Scarlet also had a second place finish in her gi category.
Luke’s son Bodey Burnham competed valiantly in winning a bronze while competing against the biggest gyms in Australia.
Chase Williams was another third place participant representing the Mildura Brazilian Jiu Jitsu banner.
“I was pretty proud as a coach to have everyone represent and compete so well,” said Burnham.
“I definitely think we’ve got a couple there that could take on the best in the world.
“We’ve got two earmarked for the AJP world titles in Dubail and then hopefully the no-gi worlds in America in December as well, so that’ll be my son Bodey and also Tyler our scholarship athlete.”
Though Burnham’s students delivered an incredible 26 podium honours in total, the biggest victory goes beyond medals for him.
“Honestly, just seeing their face like young Connie (Rudkin) who won gold on the weekend. She was versing girls heavily favoured to beat her and Connie’s an 11 year old girl who’s super talented at jiu jitsu but doesn’t believe in herself and she went out there, dominated all of her fights, got the gold, and just her face when she won, she was just in disbelief,” said Burnham.
“That’s what does it for us, is to see these kids finally start believing in themselves, thinking they’ve just done something that they didn’t think they could, that’s important for me.
“More important than the medals is that the kids are gaining self-confidence, self-belief and achieving something they didn’t think that they could.”
