By Neaman Lerhmari
Rabat – Four Moroccans are competing in the 2017 Ju Jitsu Championship 2017 held in the Colombian capital Bogota from November 23 to 25. The Moroccan team consists of Khayat El Mehdi (85 kg), Seif-Eddine Houmine (94 kg), Reda Hamzaoui (85 kg), and Bilal Azdad (62 kg).
While the Japanese and the Brazilian variants of Jiu Jitsu are growing in popularity, Morocco’s sizeable participation is a leap forward, since Houmine was the only competitor to represent the country in the previous edition.
The competitors landed in Bogota Tuesday along with Master Mohamed Targuisti, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and trainer who attends as a coach. All of the four grapplers have rolled in several prestigious competition mats where they reaped medals and stood the podium.
The game will follow Ju Jitsu International Federation rules. The Federation’s channel will broadcast the much-awaited game at 5:30 p.m. GMT, which the Moroccan Royal Ju Jitsu Federation has publicized along with the competitors names and their respective weight divisions.
The recently created federation, chaired by Karim Balk who took charge of the team expenses “from his own money” due to the lack of allocated budget, is the first of its kind to lead Moroccan Ju Jitsu competitors to major tournaments.
