Day 2 of the 2022 Youth World Championships is complete. The action began at 10 am (UTC+3) local time. The Youth B divisions took centre stage, and we saw the world’s best 14 to 15-year-olds compete over the day. In the end, sixteen world champions were crowned.
Early in the day, we saw some slick submission skills from United States Athlete Joy Sheppard as she proved too much for her group and topped the podium in the 62 kg division. This was only the beginning of the gold rush for the United States, which finished the day with five new world champions and level with Tajikistan for gold medals. Amongst the group was Lariah Gill, who won a world gold medal for a second consecutive year
Another familiar face was Delton Kaufmann, who added a third world medal to his collection, his second gold medal.
History was made during the day when Jasem Al Hosani became the first UAE athlete in IMMAF history to win a gold medal. The crowd were on their feet, and chants rang around the arena as he was declared the winner.
South Africa, Finland and Romania all picked up their first gold medals of the competition too.
Uzbekistan put on a strong showing throughout the day and was rewarded for their efforts, with Abdulaziz Abdusattorov and Mukhammadali Xojamiyarov both winning in their respective divisions. Xojamiyarov overcame a stacked 44kg division on course to a gold medal, winning all six of his bouts.
Elsewhere Wales continued to make their mark on the competition, finishing the day with three bronze medals.
A full list of medalists from Day 2 of the 2022 Youth World Championships can be found here and all the results from the day can be found here.
Day 3 of the competition will see the Youth A divisions get underway, where seven weight divisions will compete. Women’s atomweight, strawweight and flyweight will be contested along with the men’s strawweight, flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight divisions.
Watch the 2022 IMMAF Youth MMA World Championships for 12 to 17-year-olds live from Abu Dhabi from the 17 – 20 August at immaf.tv.
