Australia has had it’s most successful ADCC Submission Grappling World Championships event to date with training partners Craig Jones and Lachlan Giles both coming home with medals from the event which took place in California on the weekend.
Jones, who had a breakthrough appearance at the 2017 event by claiming fourth, managed to improve on that by claiming silver in the under 88kg division.
The 28-year-old, Absolute MMA trained grappler submitted his first three opponents in Ben Dyson, Mason Fowler, and Jon Blank before meeting Marcelo Garcia trained Matheus Diniz in the final.
The Brazilian stuffed Jones’ attacks to take the match into a second overtime period where he earned the victory via a takedown.
Due to an injury, Jones was unable to take his position in the absolute division.
The absolute division is where Lachlan Giles had arguably the performances of the tournament. After a disappointing first-round exit in the 77kg division, Giles was able to put this behind him to earn a bronze medal in the absolute division.
He set the crowd alive with a submission over Kaynan Duarte, who had just earlier won Gold in the over 99kg division.
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Moving on to the second round, Giles scored another submission against a heavier opponent, this time against -99kg competitor Patrick Gaudio before falling short in the semi-finals against under 99kg winner, submission wiz Gordan Ryan.
In the bronze medal match, the Absolute MMA head-coach met Mahamed Aly who was another competitor in the +99kg division. Giles used his speed to single out Aly’s leg and was able to secure the heel-hook submission, much to the applause of the crowd who had got behind the smaller athlete throughout his run.
Not since Chris Haseman claimed bronze back in 1999 has an Australian male claimed a medal at the ADCC World Championships.
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