The IBJJF Dublin Open 2024 took place across the weekend of April 27th and 28th, 2024 and although the adult black belt divisions weren’t full of competitors, there was plenty of action regardless. Perhaps the biggest name competing at the event was Espen Mathiesen, one of the most successful gi Jiu-Jitsu competitors to ever come out of Norway. Despite the fact that Mathiesen recently decided to venture into no gi competition at the Polaris 27 welterweight grand prix, he stuck to gi competition in this outing. Mathiesen entered this tournament at middleweight and he came away with a gold medal in a relatively small division, beating two opponents.
Bradley Hill was probably the biggest UK competitor who entered the IBJJF Dublin Open 2024, and he actually made an even bigger impact than Mathiesen. Hill won gold in the medium-heavyweight division, although his first opponent was actually disqualified due to missing weight. He proved that it made no difference though, as he actually beat that same opponent in the absolute division on the way to winning a silver medal there. The only man that beat Hill on the day was Clay Mayfield, who won the absolute division after having to settle for a bronze medal at medium-heavyweight.
There weren’t many competitors in the no gi divisions on the second day unfortunately, and many of the most popular competitors didn’t return. Clay Mayfield did come back again though, and he won his second gold medal of the weekend in the no gi heavyweight division. Jean Maltese won the absolute division that time around though, shortly after he was awarded a default gold medal at ultra-heavyweight. The women’s divisions were also pretty empty in both gi and no gi, and most of them resulted in default gold medals too. Amanda Pamela Nicole actually won the only adult black belt match in the female weight classes, as she took home a hard-earned gold medal in the gi absolute division.
