Photo credits : @lunivers.athletics
The weekend of June 15-16 was a landmark moment for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts in France, as it hosted the 2024 CFJJB French Championship, the most anticipated event of the 2023/2024 season. This event exceeded all expectations and set new records in the French Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene.
Record-Breaking Participation
Unlike previous editions, this year’s championship saw no white belts, starting instead from blue belts and culminating with elite black belts.
Earlier in March, CFJJB had organized a “Novice” French Championship, which attracted 1,300 white belt competitors in Gi.
This year, the championship brought together over 1,400 athletes, including 220 black belts, underscoring the explosive growth of the sport in France.
The matches took place across ten mats, all equipped with cameras to ensure top-quality refereeing supervised by a team of seasoned referees, four of whom officiated at the IBJJF World Championship.
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Rising Stars
Among the standout young talents were Lucas Gaffet and Chloé Heyraud, these two young athletes from the French national team, hailing from the Unik club (WAO team) in Guilherand Granges, won their respective categories as well as the blue belt juvenile absolute.
This innovative training center, which combines academics with high-level sports, is emerging as a breeding ground for future champions.
Nantes’ Domination in Colored Belts Open Classes
The city of Nantes made a significant impact with victories in the three adult colored belt absolute categories.
In the blue belt open class, Mathias Pages from the De La Riva academy delivered an exceptional performance.
Despite losing in his weight class, he triumphed in the absolute, defeating Ibrahim Regnier from the Ronin Fight Team, another lightweight and CFJJB French national team member, in the final.
In the purple belt open class, Malik Abdouraguimov and Axel Régent, both from the De La Riva club, dominated.
In the brown belt open class, Alex Hue from Team Irmaoss emerged victorious after a thrilling final against Eliott Sarthou from Z-Team.
The Elite Black Belts
The black belt absolute final featured a fierce battle between Reda Hamzaoui from Z-Team and Benjamin Sehic from Infinity.
Reda Hamzaoui emerged victorious through his experience, adding this win to his already impressive record, which includes European IBJJF titles.
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Women in the Spotlight
In the women’s categories, Anna Wodicka from Team Road 2 Jiu Jitsu won the blue belt absolute.
Lina Grosset from School Of Champs shone in the purple belt category and Camilla Saether from Meta Jiu Jitsu club triumphed in the brown belt category.
Team Rankings
Infinity clinched the trophy for the best team of the event for the third consecutive year followed by the WAO team in second place and De La Riva Nantes in third.
The French Championship 2024 concludes a historic season for French Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the CFJJB : 25,000 members and 415 affiliated academies, compared to 15,000 members and 328 academies last season.
