The IBJJF Atlanta Spring Open 2023 took place on May 6th and 7th, 2023 and several top competitors impressed in the results, including ADCC veteran Max Gimenis. He’s the one who managed to leave with the biggest haul of medals from the weekend, as Gimenis won his weight and the absolute divisions both in the gi and no gi. Although his no gi ultra-heavyweight gold medal was won by default, he had to defeat several competitors in order to take home the other three. Jessica Adams managed to come away with the most gold medals from the women’s adult divisions, winning both her weight and the absolute division in the gi on the first day.
Elsewhere in the gi, there was a fantastic final match at the men’s light-featherweight division where Kalel Santos managed to defeat Reon Niwa in order to win a gold medal. Although neither of those men competed in the no gi edition of the division on the second day, it was still won by a top competitor regardless. Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio took home gold there, and he showed some fantastic pressure-passing along the way to victory. Santos did compete on the second day though, just not in the same weightclass. Instead, he moved up to featherweight there and managed to take home another gold medal with another excellent performance.
Lucas Brito put in some great work on both days too, as he won the middleweight division in the gi and in no gi. At brown belt, Luccas Lira made an appearance and managed to win the absolute division in the gi. He wasn’t the only popular competitor outside of the adult black belt divisions either, as the legendary Joao Miyao also made an appearance and dominated the Master 1 featherweight division in the gi. All in all, the IBJJF Atlanta Spring Open 2023 was a fun weekend for everyone in attendance at the event and there was plenty of high-level grappling action in several divisions.
