For the third year in a row, I took a team to the Europeans in Portugal. It is becoming a nice little tradition for our gym to go there, and every year, it seems like we are improving our performances and results.
My own preparations had been pretty much non-existing due to injuries and being sick, but there was no chance, I wasn't going to compete anyway. Excited to battle against some of the many Brazilians in my division, I was a bit disappointed to find out, I had been matched up with another Danish guy in my first match—one who trains only 500 meters from my own gym and the same guy, I met in the semi-final last year. Although it was an exciting rematch (won last year by ref. decision after 0-0), both of us had hoped that the brackets had looked differently.
Last year, I spent six minutes in his very strong guard, so I thought I would try something else this time and pulled guard right away. The plan was to relax and hope he would either get tired or make a mistake I could capitalize on for a sweep or submission. He seemed to be in really good shape and from the first second of the match, he bombarded my guard with passing attempts at a relentless pace. I tried to spend as little energy as possible, hoping that he would turn down the intensity. Unfortunately, he was like an unstoppable steam train for six minutes and never really made any mistakes. My few attempts to sweep him was well defended and I simply didn't have the power to beat him. End result was 0-0 and two advantages to him. Well deserved victory!
The lesson learned was obvious; I need to be in much better shape. Having spent the entire 2012 rehabbing injuries, have really set me back physically, but I hope to get back up in strength and cardio as 2013 progresses. Back in the gym!
For the rest of the team, it went ridiculously well. I'll almost say, that I wasn't surprised about the result they made, because I knew how good they were and how intense and concentrated an effort they have put into the preparations. The few holes in their games had been closed during the fall season competitions and there wasn't much for the opponents to capitalize on.
I'm not going to talk too much about it (there would be too much to say :D), but will let the result and photo above speak for itself. Six gold and one silver medal. I am fucking proud of them all :)
As always, when traveling, we like to do something else than just sit in a sports hall the entire trip. This year was no different as we were stupid tourists in little scooter-cars and went surfing the last day. Great trip!
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