2020 Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship - Road to Black - 65kg

Quarantined In Korea: Why These Grapplers Spent Weeks Locked In Hotel Rooms

Spyder returns with its first event of 2020, a qualifier featuring athletes 65kg and under from the purple and brown belt ranks.

Jul 16, 2020 by Hywel Teague

Quarantined In Korea: Why These Grapplers Spent Weeks Locked In Hotel Rooms

Spyder returns with its first event of 2020, a qualifier featuring athletes 65kg and under from the purple and brown belt ranks.

The event features eight athletes -65kg, with the winner earning a place on the black belt tournament scheduled for later this year.

Yoonseo Ha- Urban Jiu-Jitsu
Raimundo Diego Sodre Clube Feijão Jiu Jitsu / Nova União
Geun Ju Lee G.O.A.T. Jiu-Jitsu
Seokhyeon Seo Wire Jiu-Jitsu
Hyunwoo Han - Team Roots Korea
Fabricio Andrey - Alliance
Jihwan Park - Wire Jiu-Jitsu
Kevin Carrasco - Ares Jiu-Jitsu

The three non-Korean athletes who flew in to compete had to undergo a period of strict quarantine, which saw them confined to their hotel rooms for a period of two weeks.

Fabricio Andrey and Diego Sodre of Brazil and Kevin Carrasco (USA) were tested for COVID19 at Incheon airport in Seoul.

From here, they were taken to a hotel where they would need to spend two weeks quarantined in their rooms.

They were not permitted to leave until the quarantine was over, meaning they had to work out alone in their rooms.

Spyder provided some small training equipment such as workout clothing and rubber bands for their training and conditioning.

It took the Brazilian athletes Fabricio Andrey and Diego Sodre over two months to get their visas. They had to be testing for COVID-19 and submit relevant documents to the Korean consulate in Sao Paulo, explaining in detail why they should get the visa. Spyder helped every step of the way with this process, facilitating their travel to Seoul for the event.

“One thing that was really difficult for me here during the quarantine was training,” says Kevin Carrasco. “Usually I have support from my team and coach, and I have my whole routine for the tournament that I try to get ready for. So this is definitely something I had to get used to.”

And later this year, Spyder plan to run more "Road to Black" qualifying events at 75kg and 85kg, with follow-up finals events at each weight class.