Abu Dhabi 2017 World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship

World's First International Parathlete Jiu-Jitsu Competition

World's First International Parathlete Jiu-Jitsu Competition

Grapplers from the world will congregate in Abu Dhabi for the tournament, which offers disabled athletes the first opportunity to compete in the same arena and with the same prestige as non-disabled athletes.

Apr 6, 2017 by Hywel Teague
World's First International Parathlete Jiu-Jitsu Competition
The Abu Dhabi World Parajiu-Jitsu Festival is the first-ever major international event involving athletes with a range of disabilities. 

Grapplers from around the world will congregate in Abu Dhabi on April 14 for the tournament, which offers disabled athletes the first opportunity to compete in the same arena and with the same prestige as non-disabled athletes. 

The event will feature adult, masters, and juvenile competitors. The classifications of disabilities to compete include impaired muscle power, limb deficiency, leg length difference, vision impairment, intellectual impairment, and more. 

Matches for adults and masters are five minutes; juveniles compete in four-minute matches.



Athletes from various disability classes have signed up, including: 
Class 1 -- Lower limb amputee
Class 2 -- Amputee and proximal lower limb amputation
Class 3 - Upper limb amputee
Class 4 - Amputee and proximal bi-amputee of the upper limb
Class 7 - Amputated and bi-amputated from the elbow down
Class 9 - Severe poliomyelitis of the lower and upper limbs
Class 10 - Spinal cord injury (paraplegic)
Class 13 - Les autres (includes all athletes with any deficiencies that may be registered by the UAEJJF Functional Classification Department, be it motor, intellectual disability, mild and moderate level Down syndrome, total deafness, or any other deficiencies that do not fit in other groups or classes).

The general rule in the distribution of the brackets will be white fight with white, blue with blue, purple with purple, brown with brown, black with black. But according to the number of athletes, all belts could fight together, and a rule will be defined after the weigh-in done one day before.


Athletes representing the following countries will compete at the event: 
  • ​Argentina
  • Australia
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Costa Rica
  • Japan
  • Jersey
  • Kazakhstan
  • Mongolia
  • Morocco
  • Russian Federation
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • United States of America
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