When Gisela Luna (pictured with gold medal) used her slick jiu-jitsu to submit Alicia Capita in the opening bout of the 2024 IMMAF African Championships, she might not have known that she was making history. Gisela became the first-ever youth continental champion from Africa out of the IMMAF system in what was a historic day for amateur mixed martial arts in Africa.
The first competition day for the African Championships was fully dedicated to the Youth tournament, with Team Angola taking the lead in earning nine youth African titles in total. Led by the likes of Luna and a tremendous all-around performance from Cláudio Fontoura at Youth B 57kg, the Angolan team put the entire tournament on notice with the performances from the Youths.
In second place, a valiant effort from South Africa, who won a total of 13 medals, with four Youth championships included. Joshua De Beer and Umar Edwards did an impressive double on the Youth A Bantamweight tournament and were the South-African standouts, along with Johnny Esterhuizen (gold at Youth A Featherweight), Caleb Swart (champion of the Youth B 67kg category), and LK Van Coller (gold medalist at Youth B 77.1kg).
The other nation to earn medals at the first-ever African Youth tournament under the IMMAF was the host country Namibia. Shange Kamwi at Youth B 57kg and Adriano Bock at Youth A Strawweight represented the home nations well taking home bronze medals in their categories.
The action at the 2024 IMMAF African Championships resumes for Day 2 this Wednesday, May 29, with the first round of the Senior tournament. 2023 Flyweight champion Damian Muller is the biggest name in action, as he looks to book a monumental quarter-final fight against 2023 Bantamweight gold medalist Maurio Silva, who’s dropping down to 125lbs. However, Damian must first beath Jonathan Banda from Zambia, in what promises to be a huge fight for the division.
Day 2 of the 2024 IMMAF African Championships begins at 7pm (GMT+2) and will be available live on IMMAF.TV!
