Island Top Team won 12 medals at the Roll Jiu-Jitsu Academy Tournament in Vancouver at the end of November. (Rob Biernacki)

By Dan Marshall

Top Team

Island Top Team returns to Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition

Dec 2, 2021 | 7:04 PM

NANAIMO — Island Top team is back on the mat with two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fall tournaments.

A typical year might contain 10-14 events but pandemic-era rules have put things largely on hold.

Head instructor Rob Biernacki said the layoff took club membership down from 160 to between 110-120 adult and child athletes.

“We lost a chunk of students. Not everyone can lose a hobby for a year and get back to it. Even our returning people, some of them didn’t get to train for over a year.”

The first tournament back was the IBJJ World No-Gi Championships in Texas in early October.

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It was Biernacki himself who had the standout performance with bronze medals in the two masters’ black belt divisions.

The club’s Ivan Olsen placed third in his masters’ middleweight blue-belt category.

Closer to home ITT took a team to the Roll Jiu-Jitsu Academy Tournament in Vancouver at the end of November.

14-year-old Sienna Miller didn’t have any competitors in her yellow belt division, so she entered the highest ranked juvenile boys green belt division.

She won gold in the event and also had to move up to the women’s adult beginner division for more competition, where she took home another gold.

“Sienna hadn’t competed in a couple of years and had an unbelievable performance,” Biernacki said. “So some athletes aren’t as impaired by the lack of competition.”

Logan Thompson’s five win run to a gold medal in the beginner division was all the more impressive because he entered in the lightweight division but ended up in a mixed category of light, medium and medium heavyweights.

He won despite giving up 30 pounds to some of his opponents.

Overall Island Top Team earned six gold, four silver and two bronze medals at the Vancouver tournament and took second in the no gi team standings.

Biernacki coached the kids team at the tournament but was quick to share credit with Cal McDonald who built and runs the program.

The next major event is the

provincials slated for March of 2022.

This season all of the travel costs for provincials and the previous two tournaments were covered by a sponsor.

Normally Biernacki himself would pay the travel and hotel costs for ITT to attend competitions but Erickson Roofing stepped in to cover everything.

“It allows us to be able to go and compete. Without that it’s too much for an individual who’s not a professional athlete.”

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