November 15 ------ IT’S in the genes.
Aleia Aielle Aguilar became the youngest world jiu-jitsu champion at five years old following her triumph in the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championships. The Filipina youngster beat Gabriela Vercosa of Brazil by submission in the finals to capture the gold in the kids 1-Under 16 kg at the Jiu-jitsu Arena in UAE.
That Aleia showed promise in combat sports at such a young age wasn’t surprising at all. Her father Alvin Aguilar is president of the oldest Filipino Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotions Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC), while her mother Maybelline Masuda was the first Filipino to become jiu-jitsu world champion in 2009 and provided the country’s first ever gold in the 2014 Asian Beach Games.
On her way to the finals, the young Aguilar, fighting out of Deftac-Ribeiro Jiu-jitsu Philippines, defeated Maria El Halabi, 6-0, of the host country in the semifinals to advance to the gold-medal round.
Her proud mother watched Aguilar in the finals, saying her opponent just tapped out after Aielle applied a heavy sprawl, prompting the Brazilian kid to throw in the towel. Masuda said her daughter’s favorite move is the armbar. “She was born into jiu-jitsu. I was bringing her with me to training after giving birth to her when she was as young as three weeks old. Every training day, competition day, she grew up with jiu-jitsu in her life and it eventually became her dream to compete,” Masuda said.
“I’m beyond happy that my baby girl is now the Philippines’ youngest world champion. We will continue to work hard to bring honor to our country,” said the beaming father, who is also president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines.
The little Aguilar was accompanied by Masuda, the junior grappling team, brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho Aguilar, coach Lester del Rosario, along with athletes Fierre Afan, Lord Gabriel Del Rosario, Joaquin Antonio Marte, and David Zaldarriaga during the competition. The elder Aguilar expressed gratitude to her daughter’s training teammates at DEFTAC and especially her training partner Yuri Yson, coaches, and wrestling mentor Choy Tumasis of WAP.
Source: spin.ph
תגובות