TJJK Pro Team

Better late than never... The first competition after corona break was BJJ Finnish Nationals that were held in the end of August at Vantaa. TJJK had a small but tough team competing there.

In the brown/belt division Perttu Tepponen and Jaakko Hulkkonen were chasing medals. Perttu Tepponen had a great run and he won +94,3 kg and open weight division. 🥇🥇
Jaakko Hulkkonen overwhelmed his opponents in the -88,3kg division and won gold. 🥇
Aleksi Kajander did also great in the blue belt -70kg division and ended up to second place.🥈

TJJK had three athletes competing in white belt divisions. Akseli Arvaja won gold in the -94,3kg with solid performance. 🥇Joonas Kaunisto ended up to bronze in -88,3kg division. 🥉Arvaja and Kaunisto met also in the white belt open weight final. Kaunisto won gold after a tough match. 🥇🥈
Finally, Rasmus Janakkala won bronze in the -94,3 kg division. 🥉

With six competitors TJJK got nine medals and ended up to second in team points!

Overall it was a year of many cancelled tournaments but there were some great success in those few competitions that the Finnish federation was able to put together.

Thank you everyone and let's hope for a more normal new year! 👍

The competition scene has been slow this year due the covid epidemic but there's been some great success nonetheless:

BJJ Finnish Nationals for teams took place on 4th of October. TJJK had three teams competing for the medals and all of them ended up on the podium. Jaakko Hulkkonen, Aleksi Niittymies, Pyry Sulonen, Perttu Tepponen and Aki Teräväinen fought in the elite +76 kg team and they ended up to the highest platform and won the gold! 🥇

TJJK had also team in the -76 kg division where Toni Lipsanen, Oula Nuuttila, Jussi Paakkinen, Mikael Suonpää and Jani Sutelainen fought. After a tough tournament they took silver in the division. 🥈

TJJK’s third team competed in the -76kg blue belt division. Team was one man short, but Eetu Miettinen, Lauri Ranta-Eskola, Joonas Saari and Anssi Seppo fought hard and ended up getting bronze. 🥉

Congrats!

TJJK is the best academy in 2020 No-Gi Finnish Championships! 🏆

The competition went down in Kuopio 1.-2.2.2020 with 329 competitors.

TJJK's 25 athletes scored a incredible 18 medals over the course of the weekend:

GOLD:
🥇Perttu Tepponen (brown/black belts +91,5 kg and
🥇Perttu Tepponen (brown/black belts open weight class)
🥇Jaakko Hulkkonen (brown/black belts -91,5 kg)
🥇Oula Nuuttila (purple belts -67,5 kg)
🥇Mirko Asell (white belts -73,5 kg)

SILVER:
🥈Jaakko Hulkkonen (brown/black belts open weight class)
🥈Arttu Virtala (purple belts -73,5 kg)
🥈Joonas Leppänen (blue belts -85,5 kg)
🥈Sampo Putkuri (white belts -67,5 kg)

BRONZE:
🥉Aleksi Niittymies (brown/black belts -85,5 kg)
🥉Arttu Virtala (purple open weight class)
🥉Erkka Pehkonen (purple belts -85,5 kg)
🥉Joona Ruuhonen (blue belts -85,5 kg)
🥉Joona Ruuhonen (blue belts open weight class)
🥉Yakup Keränen (blue belts -73,5 kg)
🥉Akseli Arvaja (white belts -97,5 kg and open weight class)
🥉Janika Juvela (white belts -66,5 kg)

TJJK had a total of five gold, four silver and nine bronze medals. With those 18 medals TJJK won the best academy’s trophy! 🏆

The highlight must the incredible DOUBLE GOLD in the men's brown/black belts absolute division By Perttu Tepponen and Jaakko Hulkkonen!

Great job everyone and huge congrats to everyone!😎🤙

2019 ADCC Finnish Championships took place 21-22.12. in Tampere. In the professional division the prize for weight class winners were tickets to the 2020 ADCC European Championship in Moldova. TJJK':s athletes brought home two gold, one silver and one bronze medals. 🥇🥇🥈🥉

The brightest star from TJJK was Arttu Virtala, who renewed last year's Finnish Championship in the -65.9 kg weight class. This time Virtala’s performance was even more convincing as he choked all his opponents. 🥇

Erkka Pehkonen won the Finnish Championship in the -87.9 kg weight class in master division. Erkka was also super impressive and submitted every single opponent on his way to gold!🥇

Kasperi Elomaa fought all the way to the finals in the men's -83 kg weight class in intermediate division and lost the final by two points, claiming silver. 🥈

TJJK's fourth medalist was found in the beginner division. Joonas Kaunisto competed in the -91 kg weight class and won bronze medal. 🥉

Good job everyone! Congratulations!

BJJ Senior Finnish Open went down in Riihimäki on 26.10.2019. TJJK’s forever young athletes got three medals in colored belts weight classes:

- 🥇 Juhana Nyyssönen got gold medal in his -70 kg division. In the high level final Juhana got victory with one advantage against Yamato Yoshida!

- 🥈🥉Erkka Pehkonen was in fire and got 2 medals in total! In his weight class (-94,3 kg) Erkka won semifinal with collar choke and got silver medal. He also succeeded in open weight class and won bronze medal in the end!

Great job everyone!

BJJ Finnish Nationals went down in Lempäälä Ideapark 16-17.11.2019.

The competition was the biggest held this far in Finnish history with 485 competitors.

Our competitors scored 12 medals in total:

- Jaakko Hulkkonen was the biggest star in the competition by dominating his weight class (-88,3 kg) and open weight class in the brown/black belt category!🥇🥇
Jaakko won five matches out of six matches by submissions and only one via points!

- TJJK got totally 3 medals from this high-level weight class, when Jaakko Ruuhonen and Aleksi Niittymies joined to the podium with their bronze medals! 🥉🥉

- Another gold medalist was Arttu Virtala in purple belt -70 kg division. Arttu was on fire and won his final match 10-0! 🥇

- In the blue belt division Joonas Leppänen (-88,3 kg) and Oliver Elomaa (-94,3 kg) got many great victories from hard opponents and scrambled through their brackets to the final. In the end, both Joonas and Oliver won silver medals!🥈🥈

- In the purple belt division TJJK got both bronze medals in -82,3 kg weight class by Markus-Petteri Haikkonen and Niki Kahila. Third medalist in purple belts was Veli-Matti Tuominen (-88,3 kg) who won bronze medal in his weight class. Great fights from all of them!🥉🥉🥉

- In the white belt division TJJK proudly presented 15 fighters on mats with many first timers! In this division TJJK got two bronze medals by Simo Saarimo (-100,5 kg) and Joonas Saari (-76 kg)!🥉🥉

It was amazing to have so many TJJK’s competitors on the mats during the weekend!

Great job everyone and huge congraz to medalists!

IBJJF Amsterdam Open took place on November 9th. Event included both Gi and No-Gi competitions. Perttu Tepponen was the only Finnish competitor and he competed in both divisions.

In the BJJ weight division final Perttu choked Mateus Godoy and got the gold.

Later that day was turn for the No-Gi competition. Perttu came second after submitting Bruno Cuppari in the first match but losing the final by points to Frederic Vosgröne.

No-Gi open weight was the last division of the day and Perttu got the gold after submitting Bruno Cuppari and Sebastian Brosche.

So, two golds and one silver in total! 🥇🥇🥈

Congratulations!

Next Saturday in Anaheim, California! Thumbs up! (Y) (Y)

Interview with ADCC Finalist Perttu Tepponen - BJJ Scandinavia Perttu Tepponen is a Brazilian jiujitsu black belt under Pedro Duarte from Tampere and one of the best grapplers in Europe. Perttu won the ADCC trials in 2018 and secured his spot in the main event held september 28th and 29th in Anaheim California. Hi Perttu. Congrats again on winning the ADCC Euro...