The men were all from the Goulburn Martial Arts Academy with varying levels of experience and training in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

The event, held at the Melbourne Convention Centre from March 17 to 19, was billed as the world’s largest annual multi-sport festival and featured sporting contest health and fitness workshops. The Brazilian jiu jitsu competition was only a small part of the expo with about 300 competitors, according to Shaun Hogan.

“It was a tremendous experience and there was so much going on apart from our competition,” Hogan said. “Brazilian jiu jitsu is different to some other forms of martial arts in that it is more about grappling.”

Ben Robertson, 16 and the youngest member of the Goulburn group, won gold in the open weight novice juvenile BJJ competition. David Gartner won silver in the 85kg men’s blue belt. Shaun Hogan won in the men’s masters open weight blue belt and Craig Harmer won gold in the 100kg purple belt masters and another on the absolute or open weight purple masters. Henry Osborne was fighting in the men’s blue belt class for the first time, but lost his first match; and David Sturgiss, with only five weeks in the sport, won his first match.