Rilion Gracie, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter, and Convoy native TJ McMenamin brought another brace of medals back from the prestigious IBJJF London Fall International Open.
The Gi & No-Gi competition, which was held over the weekend at Crystal Palace sports stadium. On the Saturday Gi event McMenamin won gold in Masters blue-belt medium heavyweight division and took silver in the open-weight division in the afternoon.
[adrotate group=”38″]The following day, Sunday, in the Masters No-Gi blue-belt heavyweight division, McMenamin lost out in a close run final by a refereeing decision, when the scores were even.
He then again took part in the open weight division and secured silver in the final of the this open-weight division losing out in a points decision.
Over the course of the weekend McMenamin fought in seven matches, and secured one gold, and three silver medals for his club Rilion Gracie Ireland BJJ/MMA, based in Old Town, Letterkenny, which is Donegal’s only full time martial arts gym.
[adrotate group=”85″]It is run by BJJ black belt, Brian ‘Barney’ Coyle, whom recently received his black belt after 10 plus years of constant training, from Rilion Gracie himself in Miami.
Gracie is the youngest son of Master Carlos Gracie, one of the originators of BJJ. Coyle is only the second Donegal person to hold the prestigious BJJ black belt, with John McAteer from Ramelton being the first – an honour shared with a small handful of other indigenous Irish grown black belts.
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