Alexandro Ceconi. Photo: Rony Costa

The city of Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina, Brazil received another event with the seal of the CBJJ last weekend.

The highlight of the fifth edition of the South Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship was a local fighter, black belt Alexandro Ceconi (Ceconi Team), absolute champion in the adult black belt division.

The runner-up was Vinicius Corrales (Guetho JJ), who also won the middleweight. Alexandro got double gold by winning the heavyweight division, too.

In the featherweight, Isaque Paiva (Saikoo) beat Johnny Crispim (Gracie Barra) in the final. In the medium-heavyweight, Rodrigo “Pimpolho” Fajardo (Gracie Barra) beat Pedro Mello (Gracie Floripa). Claudio Caloquinha (Gracie Barra) was champion at the lightweight division.

The ultraheavyweight was dominated by André Campos (Gracie Barra), who defeated Lucas Cardoso (World Union Fight) for the gold.

In the brown belt, Fábio Pulita (Alliance) won the absolute and the middleweight. At the absolute, Diego defeated Fábio Lima (Gracie SP).

At the teams competition, Gracie Barra came on top, with Michel Maia Jiu-Jitsu coming second and Nova União in third.

Check out the official score reported by CBJJ below. To see the complete results of the tournament, click here.

1. Gracie Barra – 178

2. Michel Maia – 142

3. Nova União – 130

Michelle Nicolini and her dangerous triangle. Photo: Carlos Ozorio

Right after becoming light featherweight champion, black belt Michelle Nicolini sat next to Caleb Querns and Shawn Williams, commentators for Budovideos.com, and bust out her English. Even so, she says, “I was nervous, it must not have come out too well.”

Nervous and tired, as she would admit to GRACIEMAG.com afterwards, while celebrating another gold medal in her career. “It’s true, another one. I needed this one,” the brunette from CheckMat smiled.

Nicolini first faced Japan’s Takako Abe (Parestra), in the semifinal, and gave her a 19-2 drubbing. “I opened the scoring, but I felt a bit tired and ended up sitting to play guard. I gave her those 2 points but, in compensation, I adjusted and sunk the triangle. I didn’t play much from the bottom this championship, nor did I hardly play guard. It was excellent, this way people could see I know how to play on top too!” she joked.

In the final she faced Nyjah Easton (Lloyd Irvin), routing her 17 to 0. “I felt a bit fatigued, but it went well. Now I’ll return to São Paulo and train with Leozinho. I’ll enter the South Brazilian, the Brazilian Nationals, SP Cup and then the Worlds 2010,” she plans. Gold at the Pan put her on the right track, and proof all she is thinking about is her objective is that Michelle will not teach a single seminar until June:

“Right, seminars only after the Worlds,” said the current world runner-up in farewell, since she had to rush to Los Angeles airport.

To check out who has signed up for the South Brazilian, visit IBJJF.org.