MARTIAL ARTS: My Golden Day
SONNY SOUDAIN-VALTON
This year’s British Open Jiu Jitsu Championships took place last month in Coventry. I was competing as a fighter with the Freestyle Combat Academy (FCA) of Bexhill-on-Sea in 70kg featherweight brackets, both for the Masters category (30 to 35 year-olds) and Adult (18 to 30s).
Sonny on British Open Masters 1 podium
I would usually have a team with me – a coach in my corner, or one of my training partners, just in case anything goes wrong. But this time all the coaches of FCA have other appointments, and the friend who is supposed to be with me on the day is told at the last minute that he is to have his two small children with him all weekend. I am on my own.
I leave Sussex at 11pm on the Saturday evening, arriving at my Holiday Inn room in Coventry at 2.30am. It’s a restful night before competition day, but I wake up knowing that to make the weight (which I’ve been cutting back all the week before), I can’t allow myself much for breakfast, or even much water. I sip enough to avoid dehydration and take my supplements (vitamins, collagen, ashwagandha and amino acids), then I’m off to the venue to check in.
I’m confident that I have half an hour to spare before my first bracket is set to start. But at the check-in desk I hear the speakers: LAST CALL SONNY SOUDAIN-VALTON! LAST CALL! That’s me! I’m ushered through, running down the stairs and dropping my bags by the weigh-in, to look for the man on the microphone. “Go, get weighed in and come straight through!” he tells me. I change into my ‘Gi’ (Jiu Jitsu kimono). My weight is exactly 69.9kg.
At the bull pen my Gi is checked to fit the regulations. Then I’m straight to the mats for my first match, my opponent there already, thinking I won’t show up. I realise I’ve forgotten my gum shield and water. But I’ve got my phone and seeing another competitor sat waiting near the edge, I ask him if he would kindly film my match for me.
Within seconds I am called onto the mats. As my feet touch, my focus kicks in.
First win of the day is achieved by submission in 4 minutes 40 seconds.
That’s followed by a ten minute break, then a succession of further victories by submission in the Masters 70kg, then the same in the Masters ‘Absolute’ (open weight bracket). I have two Golds!
On to the Adult bracket, where I win a first bout on points instead of submission. My winning streak is stopped by Christian Timmis. He is ranked ninth in the world with the IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation), and goes on to win both the Adult bracket and the Adult open weight on the day. But being beaten in the semi-final has put me on the third step of the Adult featherweight podium, a very pleasing outcome. And I haven’t even sustained any new injury!
I feel blessed indeed, living to fight another day.
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