Luke Harris ended a year to remember as a world champion.
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu second degree black belt from St. Albert was the NoGi master three open weight winner at last month’s IBJJF worlds in Anaheim.
The accomplishment boosted Harris from fourth to first in the world rankings in master three for his age (40 to 45) division as a black belt.
“It’s definitely something off the bucket list. It was definitely a goal and winning world championships as well with the ranking, and that’s with NoGi, so this year my goal is really to do it in the Gi as well,” said Harris, 41, who was awarded silver in the NoGi master three super-heavyweight division at worlds. “As long as you medal you have the chance to compete in the open division so I did and I won the whole thing.”
NoGi is grappling without the traditional jiu-jitsu uniform and the brawny six-foot-three, 220-pound Harris was the top competitor in four matches in the open division.
As for the rankings, “All the tournaments are accumulative and you receive points for each tournament. Each tournament is weighted differently so obviously the world championship is weighted much higher than some of the open tournaments,” said Harris, who felt he deserved a better fate in the super-heavyweight competition with one loss in five matches.
“It should’ve been gold. I don’t really like to complain about the refereeing but sometimes it gets in the way,” said the owner of Hayabusa Training Centre Ltd. in Campbell Business Park.
The podium finishes at worlds for Harris topped his 2018 medal haul to 23 (15 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze) in 24 events spread throughout four countries.
The gold medal at Anaheim was the first for Harris at worlds and the sixth medallion on the world stage in three years.
“It was a long year of training and hard work but at the same time I have students coming with me to each of these and oftentimes I’m coaching there and competing. There is definitely a lot that goes into it but I absolutely love every moment of it. I love the training aspect of it, seeing my students compete and succeed is a really big thing as well, and the medals are just sort of like the icing on the cake I guess.”
The globe-trotting jiu-jitsu was a tough nut to crack.
“I’ve been competing a lot. I’ve had lots of success in Europe. I won Europeans with the Gi in Portugal in January and I won NoGi Europeans in Rome as well,” Harris said. “There are some good results I’m happy with, but the big thing is it’s great that our (Hayabusa) team has got to a level where we can compete at an international level and you get the results.
“I used to fight MMA (10-3 record as “Hayabusa” Harris) for many years and I had to do training camps elsewhere, like go down to the States, but right now as a team we’re producing world champions at other belt levels as well and it’s become a really great environment here for that.”
The John Cena lookalike approached worlds with all his bases covered.
“I did all my training here. I do my strength and conditioning at Athletes Nation, which is next to us. Being 41 I have to take care of my body as well so I use Active Physiotherapy, too, so there is a lot of pieces to the pie that come together, like taking care of yourself and all the training that goes into it,” Harris said.
The most satisfying performance for the St. Albert Catholic High School alumnus was the NoGi European championships.
“I got gold in my division and the open weight I got bronze, but I had the chance to compete against some guys like (Renato) Bubalu Sobral … I actually beat him with the Gi and without the Gi,” said Harris of the retired MMA fighter. “That’s one thing that’s really exciting about this is you get to compete against some guys, like living legends of the sport, that you’ve looked up to.”
The next tournament is the European Championships in two weeks in Lisbon, Portugal.
“It’s a big one. It's a prestigious tournament and it's quite difficult as well so even though I’ve been winning lots there is no guarantee. I could lose the first match for all you know,” said Harris, who aced his judo black-belt exam at the age 18 with the St. Albert Judo Club.
