Quissama Beach Wrestling

Quissama Beach Wrestling, Throws Under the Sun
"Mat" at Quissama Beach on February 19th

With the Pan American Games 2007 in Brazil approaching, the CBLA (Confederation of Fights) in partnership with Leandro Ribeiro Gomes (Submission Wrestling promoter) had an idea of promoting the first Quissama Beach Wrestling tournament. In my opinion, the initial idea had more support of fans and fighters than a normal Wrestling competition would. Around 300 people watched this event under the hot sun in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Gomes tried to improve the reputation of the event by calling people on the beach to compete at the local division, and this was a great difference in the show. Some yellow and blue belts of BJJ, plus enthusiastic people (who never fought before) tested their throw skills in the warm sand. The success was so huge, that kids (around 5-6 years old) who were watching the events rehearsed their first Wrestling moves.

Between the professional fighters, the BJJ and Luta-Livre back-belts who participated of the event "made the happiness" of the members of National Wrestling team. Among a few others, tough fighters as Fabricio Monteiro (BJJ) and Ricardo Cordeiro (Luta-Livre) were victims of perfect throws displayed respectively by Adrian Jaoude and Rodrigo Damm. Damm was a cut above the rest. After conquering a submission title in Saturday, he was ready to capture the under 77kgs prize money of Beach Wrestling and become the runner-up in the absolute division in a David vs. Goliath match against Olympic wrestler Antoine Jaoude.

Jaoude also was a main attraction on the beach when fans wanted to know information about "that big guy" who took part of last Olympic Games. The prize moneys of 1000 R$ in absolute, 400R$ in other categories, and 300R$ in the women were the awards for the fighters who did effort to show a great game in a new Wrestling venture, the beach wrestling.

Results:
- 66kgs
Daniel Malvino
Luciano Lut

-77kgs
Rodrigo Damm
Felipe Macedo

-88kgs
Adrian Jaoude
Fabricio Monteiro

Women
Liliana Campos
Silvana Abreu

Absolute
Antoine Jaoude
Rodrigo Damm

Local division
-66kg
Diego Oliveira
Odilson Junior
Guilherme dos Santos

-77kgs
Junior Oliveira
Rodrigo Barcelos
Reginaldo de Souza

Kids
Joao Victor
Marcos Vinicius
CRISTIAN