Absolutely awesome Africa Open
The Africa Open Amateur MMA Championships came to the Brakpan Indoor Sports Centre from May 24 to 26.
Brakpan’s shihan Raymond Phillips, International Mixed Martial Arts (IMMAF) director for Africa and Mixed Martial Arts South Africa (MMASA) vice-president, announced that this prestigious international event was a huge success with six countries competing for the All Africa IMMAF title. The countries competing were the host nation South Africa, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Australia, Tunisia, Cameroon and Mauritius.
According to Phillips, this was the biggest All Africa Open to date.
South Africa has played host to this event since 2016 and Phillips was asked by the international federation if South Africa can again host it in 2019.
“It is a great honour and privilege to bring an international event to South Africa and to help in uniting athletes around the world,” said Phillips.
“It was fantastic to welcome them to our country and to our humble town of Brakpan in Ekurhuleni.”
After the event, South Africa was placed second in the world rankings with Sweden in first place, Bulgaria third and Cameroon 12th out of 52 countries.
Also read: Africa Open is back in Brakpan
On the African continent South Africa is first, Cameroon second, Tunisia third and Mauritius fourth.
The results for this tournament were: South Africa (three gold medals, two silver medals and seven bronze medals), Bahrain (four gold medals and one silver medal), Cameroon (two gold medals, five silver medals and two bronze medals), Australia (one gold and one silver medal), Tunisia (one silver medal) and Mauritius (one bronze medal).
“The event gives our athletes a chance to compete against top fighters and improve their skill without having to travel at great cost,” added Phillips.
“IMMAF’s vision is to help African MMA develop and they invested with MMASA to waver all entrance fees of athletes.”
The shihan said that IMMAF has made huge progress since 2014 and is striving to get amateur MMA into the Olympics.
“We as the board of directors are working closely together to accomplish this goal.”
Important dignitaries were also present at the event, namely Kerrith Brown (IMMAF president, former Olympian and Olympic medallist), Benjamin Mphahlele (Ekurhuleni Sports Confederation secretary general) and Biyem Assandje Theodore (Cameroon’s minister of sport and physical education).
The next IMMAF events take place in June with the European Open in Romania in September with the Asia Open and Junior World Championships (u-21) in Beijing, China, and the Senior IMMAF World Championships in November in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
For any further information on training or MMA competitions contact Phillips at 083 701 2154 or email to rayforce@xkt.co.za
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