In a break from my normal blogging format, here’s a little look at the front runners in the UKBJJA rankings going into the English Open. As a 4x weighted tournament everything is up for grabs in pursuit of a support package for the European Championships in January 2016.
Information taken from the UKBJJA rankings
http://uk.ukbjja.org/ranking
Apologies I don’t know enough about white belts to comment.
Blue
Looking at the top of the blue belt rankings Ashley Amos is
the current favourite, with second place Reece Doran not taking part in the
English, Louis Corazza is his next nearest competitor but is over 100 points
behind. Ash came top of the White belt rankings last year and competed in
Lisbon before having an extremely strong first year at blue belt.
One potential road block for Ashley is Gracie Barra
Nottingham Super Heavyweight Tom Spibey. Tom leads the nogi rankings but until
this weekend only had 9 points in the gi. Winning at Nottingham and taking the
absolute in a close out with fellow GB Nottingham competitors has catapulted
him up to 4th in the runnings.
Sitting in the same division as Ash he proves the biggest
challenge to the super heavyweight title and the 108 points for the gold would
lead for a tight conclusion as both of these men would be expected to make
waves in the absolute.
As the super heavyweights collide Spibey’s challenge could
also be of benefit to Corazza, anything less than gold for Amos opens the door
for Corazza who has shown to be strong in absolutes. With plenty of other
strong competitors the blue belt absolute should be highly entertaining.
Purple
It’s a two man battle in the Purple belt rankings between
Bryn Jenkins from Chris Rees Academy and Sean Coates from Gracie Barra
Nottingham. Bryn has been nudging a small lead but a win for Sean in weight and
absolute at the Nottingham Open this last weekend netted him another 67.5
points, giving him the lead with 432 points to 378.
They are both favourite to win their divisions with Bryn
having tougher task with a larger division including Carlson Gracie stand out
Taylor Pearlman. The absolute should decide this one, netting the top spot
would send either of them to Lisbon
Let’s hope they meet in the finals.
Brown
With a lot of names missing from the competitor lists at
Brown belt (including Sean McDonagh and Jamie Hughes) no change is expected
with Allan Love likely to remain at the top
Black
Relatively few black belts on the board at the moment. The
man to beat Jack Mcghee, will be in action against Rob Taylor on Sunday. However
if a competitor was to win their division and the black belt absolute they
could topple Mcghee even if he wins his division so Jack also needs a strong
showing in the absolute.
Womens
Womens
Blue
With Ffion Davies being promoted to purple belt following
her World Nogi double gold this division is wide open any of the top 10 ladies
could take the top spot with a commanding performance at the English.
Purple
Kat Hill is practically unassailable, the points difference
between her and Sophie Walters is more than the points for gold absolute. I can’t
see Kat losing in her division which will give her the top spot.
Sadly there are no Brown or Black belt women’s matches
taking place this year.