It’s black and bronze for BJJ’s Rolandas and Cody

New black belt Rolandas Janavicius with his coach, Thiago Ferriera, and Cody Leighton with his four bronze medals.

After eight years of training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Rolandas was awarded his Black Belt by his long time friend and Professor, Thiago Ferreira.

And for Cody, it was bronze, after he claimed four medals, all for third placed finished at the European Junior BJJ Championships.

Rolandas has competed twice since competitions have restarted after the lockdowns, his last one being the British Open where he felt fit and ready for the challenge of competing against a fellow brown belt, who was an age category below his own. Taking every training opportunity available to him, he stepped onto the mats knowing he could have done no more in his preparation , and it paid off , coming away as British Open Champion 2021.

The achievement paled though when Thiago produced the new belt and promoted him. His love of the sport has pushed him to be the best he could be and at no point has he chased the next belt, he’s just let it happen when it was deserved.

On his journey, Rolandas has travelled around Europe to compete and met some amazing people who have all made his journey special.

He will soon be returning to his native Lithuania with his family, where his journey will continue.

He would like to thank the TF Fitness Gym family for their support over the past eight years and also his sponsors, Farne Salmon of Scotland.

Meanwhile, Berwick Middle School pupil, Cody recently travelled to Wolverhampton to compete in the Elite Junior BJJ European Championships which is held over two days.

The gi competition was held on the Saturday where Cody competed at Orange belt level for the first time, winning bronze, which gave him automatic entry into the absolute division. This is where all the same age group and belts compete against each other and Cody had his second third placed finish.

The following day was the nogi where he met two of the fighters he’d been up against the previous day. Again he took the bronze, allowing entry into the absolute against the fighters from the heavier weight divisions, where he took his fourth bronze.