Last week, we reported that 2018 Brown/black Belt female world pro champion Amal Amjahid – a Belgian citizen with Moroccan heritage was Amal out of the 2018 worlds competition after her father has been denied USA entry visa in spite of having been there 6 times.
Amjahid carved out quite a name for herself internationally having won double gold at Europeans a while back and a Silver medal at Worlds 2017.
It now appears that Amal and her black belt dad and coach have been granted a Visa and will be competing in future editions:
Good news, US Embassy Brussels received yesterday my father and I to announce the good news that we can continue to travel to the United States to compete in future championships. The adventure continues as we will be receiving a 10-year visa, allowing us to stay focused on our competition goals. Thank you to the entire team of US Embassy Brussels and all the people who supported us.
Last week, Amal had been quite desperate and various BJJ media relayed the news:
No #worlds IBJJF for me this year. We have been denied access to American territory and have not been able to embark on the flight to Los Angeles. This ban is extended to my father and coach Khalid Houry who has been with me since the beginning of this adventure when we visited more than 6 times in Los Angeles.
We do not understand this decision, especially since my father is an integrated person and has no problem with justice, on the contrary he works every day to improve society as best he can in his social investment. I would particularly like to thank US Embassy Brussels for all the efforts they have provided to solve this problem, they tried to contact Department of Homeland Security to untie this problem without result, other proposals were But unfortunately this did not allow us to go to the United States on time. Leaving without my coach is an unthinkable idea to me as long as we both are on this earth, we will continue our way together.
bjjheroes.com once refered to Amjahid as the most feared brown belt out there:
“We are on earth to accomplish great things. Give the best you have inside of you, the strongest and don’t keep anything for yourself”. This attitude towards life was instilled in Amjahid from a very young age through many different episodes. One example of this was a road trip to Morocco by bicycle planned by the family in 2006 – 3200 kilometers in 1 month – “For that I had to prepare for 2 years by going to school by bike every morning and come back every night before training jiu-jitsu (50km).” Amal was 11 years old at the time of the trip.
Alexandre Vieira is one of the most exciting up and coming grapplers today under the Brazilian Top Team flag. In 2017, his loop choke submission was chosen as the Submission of the Year by FloGrappling. Alexandre recently put together his Crucifix and Loop Choke 3 volume instructional set. Alexandre brings a modern outlook to some of the sports most devastating, but sometimes ignored positions, the crucifix and the loop choke.
