Great first day for the squad: Very proud of all our team members who put on such a strong performance today. Our two Canadian boys Ethan Crelinsten and Oliver Taza both had great matches – attacking relentlessly and impressing the crowd with their submissions arsenal. Young Nicky Ryan at sixteen was by far the tournaments youngest competitor – he had a fine match against a black belt no gi world champion lost narrowly on points, but impressed everyone with his attacking style in such an elite event. Tom DeBlass had two titanic matches at heavyweight, winning the first and losing the second on a tight referees decision against last adcc world champion. Jake Shields looked great in his match but as he seemed to be controlling his way to win he got caught on a sweep and then additional points as he tried to recover – impressive as he was fighting two weight categories above his own to avoid clashes with team mates in his actual weight category (170 pounds). The two standout performances came from squad seniors, Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan. Mr Tonon won tough matches against the Brazilian trials winner and also the very talented world champion Marcelo Manfra. Mr Ryan had a tough match against his very talented and tactically sound rival dillon danis- taking a narrow decision win due to getting a full leg locking position just as time expired and then getting close to a back position in overtime. He saved his best performance for his second match against multiple world and former ADCC champion, romulo barral. In a classic display of positional play, Mr Ryan was able to take home down, pass his guard twice, then take his back and finish with a tightly applied stranglehold. Day 1 is over – now it's time to prepare for tomorrow, recharge batteries, plot and plan and head into day 2 So proud of our young athletes performance in the Olympics of grappling – they will be back even stronger next time! Excited for the continuation tomorrow- hope you are all well and enjoying the show! Quick salute to our Australian friends – Australia had an amazing day through the incredible work of Craig Jones who had a breakout performance, Submitting two jiu jitsu legends today
