Trail’s Pride Gym martial artists tangled with the area’s best as it hosted the first Invitational Grappling Tournament at the Pride Gym Martial Arts Center in Trail Saturday.
“It went pretty good for the first one, we hope to extend it out to Washington State and the Okanagan next time,” said Pride Gym trainer Glen Kalesniko.
Five teams from Kootenai Jui Jitsu and Valley Jui Jitsu in Castlegar, Transcendant Martial Arts from Nelson, and Trail’s Pride Gym participated including over 50 youngsters, teens and adults grappled in Kids, Teen, and Adult Absolute categories as well as elite submissions.
Grappling is a mixed martial art that combines elements of wrestling, Judo and Jui Jitsu. Wins can be attained through submission holds, take downs or accumulated through points, the matches last three-minutes for kids, five for teens and seven for adults.
“You develop the kids to learn their basic positioning,” he added. “It’s using a lot of the martial arts that are more of a grappling martial art.”
Nahum Colwell of Pride Gym won the Kids Absolute, Grant Smith of Valley Jui Jitsu won the Teens Absolute and Jake Rudkoski of Pride Gym won Adult Absolute.
The Absolute matches include individuals of any weight and experience in each category.
Yarrow Doyle of Valley Jui Jitsu took home Kids Elite Submission, Gabriel Colwell of Pride Gym took home Teens Elite Submission and Justin Ryan of Transcendent Martial Arts took home Adult Elite Submission.
Kootenai Jui Jitsu won the team championship.
The Pride Gym team took home 17 medals including gold to Chris Lemieux, Isaiah Colwell, Kyle Jorgenson, Jacob Rudkoski,and CJ Bagg.
Silver medal winners were Mary Colwell, Tyler Harry, Dylan Chambers, Ezekiel Colwell and Ryan Lavigne.
Brennan Koach, Nahum Colwell, Maeva Canayer, Yanis Canayer, Gabriel Colwell, Chris Luening, and Bryan Lauzon picked up bronze.
Trophies and medals were provided by Ferraro Foods and Kootenay Chiropractic.