The Brazilian Team National Championship is coming up on its 15th installment this September 25 at Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca Tennis Club and is open for sign-ups. One team that stood out in the event over the last two years is GFTeam, winning the lightweight part of the tourney in the brown/black belt division, and this time it wants to do well among the heavier weight classes, too.
“We’re going in strong. We know it will be rough, the other teams area always really tough, but we’re going for gold not just at lightweight, but heavyweight as well,” remarks Coach Julio Cesar.
In the lightweight team, reinforcements from Soul Fighters Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes and Rafael “Formiga” Barbosa will sit out this time. But when it comes to heavyweights, the team has another card up its sleeve.
“This time, Soul Fighters will go in with its own team, so we won’t rely on Formiga and Tanquinho at lightweight. But even so, we’ve got a really good team. At heavyweight, we have Igor Silva, a Muzio De Angelis student, going in with us,” says Julio.
GFTeam (formerly UGF) boasts as its main representatives Theodoro Canal and Denilson Pimenta among the lightweights and Rodolfo Vieira, Igor Silva, Ricardo Evangelista and Vinícius Marinho on the heavyweight team, among a number of other hard-nosed competitors.
Check out some images from the team training at the Méier branch in Rio de Janeiro:
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