The IBJJF New Haven Open 2023 took pace across the weekend of August 12th and 13th, 2023, and several top competitors delivered some great moments for the fans in attendance. There was action all around in every weight class but there wasn’t any no gi divisions available for competitors, something that naturally meant that the turnout was lower. While the highlights on the mats were all generated due to individual performance, the work for any tournament is done in the training room. It was clear here that Nova Uniao have put together a great training room as they emerged victorious in the team standings with almost twice as many points as Renzo Gracie Academy in second place.
Gabriel Costa was able to put on one of the most impressive performances of the weekend in the men’s medium-heavyweight division, where he won a gold medal for Dream Art. He tried to repeat that feat in the absolute division later on in the day, and he came within one match of actually doing so. He ran into Italo Lima Costa in the final of the absolute division though, and he had to settle for a silver medal as Costa emerged victorious. Not even Lima Costa could take home two gold medals though, as he lost out to Enderson Dias in the final of the heavyweight division.
The turnout for the women’s divisions at the IBJJF New Haven Open 2023 was pretty low unfortunately, but there was still plenty of fun matches to watch. Larissa Dias got a default gold medal at super-heavyweight initially, but she put in plenty of hard work to win gold in the absolute division. There was a surprising face in the master divisions too, as Joao Miyao took home a gold medal from the Master 1 lightweight division after winning his only match.
