Gold medal for Jiu-Jitsu competitor with Limerick connections

LIMERICK-American woman, Mara Kelly has come out victorious in the World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships.

Mara received a gold medal in the brown belt finals which were held on Friday, December 9.

Mara Kelly left the Atlantic waters of Boston for The Emerald Isle around ten years ago and now resides in Limerick city centre where she has spent a lot of her time training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

“I guess I had that Americanised view of moving back to Ireland,” Mara said.

“My father’s side of the family were Irish - I’m one of the people the dream went well for because I’ve been here for about ten years now,” she added.

Mara says winning gold in the world championships was a big relief.

“I’ve been training for eight years.

“I didn’t have a lot of time in my earlier years of training to compete in competitions because I was in college so it’s great to have this outcome now.

“We’re from a small place in Limerick and a lot of times when I compete in America they’ve never heard of Limerick let alone our gym so it was nice to show everyone what you can achieve if you put in the hard work,” Mara added.

When Mara was younger she did gymnastics for years but stopped training in any kind of sport when she arrived in the University of Limerick to study engineering.

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“I just needed a competitive outlet and unless you go into professional gymnastics there aren’t many competitive outlets.

“I found Jiu-Jitsu and I started it with a friend in the local gym on the Dock Road.

“It was a great sport where you could just compete and train a lot,” she said.

This week, Mara received her black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and will begin competing in further competitions next month.

“Now at the end of January, I’m going to compete in the European Championships with a black belt,” Mara said.

“That’s the largest competition in our sport every year in terms of people who attend it.