SINGAPORE \u2013 When mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Garie Tang discovered that his weight category had been dropped from the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand, the Singaporean was disappointed.<\/p>\n
The omission of the ne-waza no-gi 56kg category \u2013 in which he won back-to-back Games silver medals \u2013 also ended his bid for a fourth consecutive appearance at the biennial meet.<\/p>\n
But the initial setback proved a blessing in disguise, with the 35-year-old rebounding in style by winning gold in the brown-belt master 1 division at the Dec 11-14 World International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation (IBJJF) Jiu-jitsu No-Gi Championship in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
It is Tang\u2019s first title at the annual competition.<\/p>\n
Tang, who defeated three opponents to stand atop the podium at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Dec 12, said: \u201cI won\u2019t say that it (not going to the Games) motivated me (to win the No-Gi championship), but I think I look back on it as more of a blessing in disguise. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had qualified for the SEA Games, I would not have been able to travel and go to this competition. And this is something I have been chasing for a while too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Triumph had also come against adversity.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tang said he has been having sleep issues for the last two years, resulting in him often getting between zero and three hours of sleep daily. On a good day, he would get five hours. <\/p>\n
He continued to train, work \u2013 as the martial arts assistant lead at Trapeze Rec. Club \u2013 and compete. He said the issue finally took a toll on his body in September.<\/p>\n
While he declined to go into details, Tang said he had \u201chealth issues\u201d which forced him to cancel overseas trips and take time off to recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely didn\u2019t feel like competing at all during that period of time,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like training too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sat out training for several weeks and also sought professional help for his sleep issues before signing up for the IBJJF competition. To prepare for it, he went for a month-long training camp.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tang said: \u201cThis competition is a once-a-year thing and I told myself, I want to do it again this year and win the title just to prove a point to myself that I can go through tough training again, push myself and compete again after those health issues that I had. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to show myself that I still have the fire and the drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
His love for the sport has kept the fire burning. <\/p>\n
Tang, who was a recipient of the Ultimate Fighting Championship Scholarship in 2019, which saw him go on an all-expenses paid trip to train for four weeks at the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai, said he is inspired daily by his colleagues and the ju-jitsu fighters that he trains.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching and helping people to improve at the sport which allows them to feel better about their day is something I take satisfaction from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community inspires me too. It is not just the students and the younger guys, but even those who are 45 and older, have a full-time job, seeing them get stronger and healthier gives me a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a world title in the trophy cabinet, he is not giving up on his pursuit of that elusive Games gold. <\/p>\n
Tang, who had also represented Singapore in wrestling and combat sambo, winning bronze in the latter sport in 2019, hopes that he will get to compete at the 2027 edition in Malaysia or the 2029 Games on home soil.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI definitely want to do that, get the gold medal. Ju-jitsu is something you can do till you\u2019re much older, so there is no timeframe on when I would stop. As long as I am competing, you want to achieve things. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would definitely be nice to really get a gold at the SEA Games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singapore Ju-jitsu Association president Henry Kothagoda praised Tang\u2019s efforts, adding: \u201cHe is an excellent athlete (who) is dedicated to jiu-jitsu. <\/p>\n
\u201cMay his achievement inspire future generations of Singaporean jiu-jitsu athletes to excel at the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mixed martial artsWorld championshipsSEA GamesWrestling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 When mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Garie Tang discovered that his weight category had been dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-373233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}