It’s sad news for any of the elite grapplers living in Asia and Oceania but the 2021 ADCC trials event in Singapore will be postponed until next year now. The news comes in the form of a post to the official Instagram account of the ADCC world championships, where the organization revealed that the current challenges around organizing an event in the location have necessitated it’s postponement. Now, this edition of the trials will be moved back to 2022 and will take place at the end of the eight different trials instead, some time in the Spring.
The organization made no mention of the second ADCC Asia and Oceania trials event that is due to take place in Australia in 2022, although it’s likely too early to tell what will happen there and whether that will be postponed as well. As it stands, Australia has incredibly strict Covid-19 restrictions in place but with several months to go before the trials would take place, it’s impossible to predict what they will be like by then until much closer to the date. This isn’t the first time that the pandemic has hit the ADCC world championships hard of course as the entire event was delayed by a year in order to leave sufficient time to run all eight trials events and allow athletes to earn a place in the tournament.
With the ADCC World Championships booked for September 17th and 18th in Las Vegas, that leaves just eleven months to complete the remaining seven trials events. The first one took place in September 2021 and saw the best grappling talent from Europe, North-Africa, and the Middle-East competing for a spot at the world championships, with five men booking their place. The only one left in the schedule for 2021 now is the first North American trials which are set for November 6th, with the second edition of those two events and both editions of the South American trials all set for next year too.
