The IBJJF Salvador Spring Open 2023 took place on across the weekend of September 30th and October 1st, 2023 and it attracted some fantastic competitors from all around Brazil. Anderson Kauan put on a fantastic performance on the first day as he managed to take home a pair of gold medals, winning the absolute division and his own weight class at super-heavyweight. Yuri Silva managed to achieve the same feat in the women’s divisions in the gi, but the gold medal she got from the featherweight division was won by default after nobody else entered the bracket.
There were no double-champions in the no gi edition of the IBJJF Salvador Spring Open 2023 though, although several athletes did stand on the podium twice. Leonardo Goncalves walked away with the gold medal in the men’s absolute division but he had to settle for a silver medal in the super-heavyweight division earlier on in the day. He lost out to Lucas Alves in the final, who actually had a pretty good weekend on the mats himself. Not only did Alves win gold at super-heavyweight in no gi, but he also won gold at heavyweight in the gi and took a bronze medal from the no gi absolute as well.
The women’s no gi absolute division was won by Marilia Freire, and she had to beat tough opposition in the form of Eliza Vasconcelos in the final. Lucas Gualberto was among the other big names who decided to compete at the event, and he came away with a gold medal in the gi medium-heavyweight division. There were plenty of colored belt and masters competitors on the mats as well and several academies had pretty big turnouts. In the end it was Nova Uniao who managed to take home the team trophy on both days though, finishing with a pretty comfortable gap between them and the second-placed teams.
