As Josh Van Meurs was winning a gold medal at the World Youth Pankration (mixed martial arts) championship in Greece on Saturday, word later filtered out that his hero George St-Pierre won his own crown.
So Van Meurs, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Belmont, went out and celebrated the only way he knew how, by winning a second gold medal on Monday.
The tough, dedicated Langford resident claimed the semi-contact Pankration title in the 75-kilogram weight class and then tossed in a full-contact MMA championship for good measure over a total of 12 gruelling bouts.
"I heard about GSP winning and we were talking about it. I was pretty excited. He won it before I won my second, so I knew I had to make it two-for-two," Van Meurs said Wednesday morning, over the phone from Frankfurt on a layover on his way home.
sa国际传媒's St-Pierre defeated Carlos Condit to unify the UFC welterweight crown in Montreal on Saturday, just as Van Meurs was representing his country at the international event in Sparta.
"Most had just entered the one event, because most guys were busted up from competing," Van Meurs said of adding his second title. "I was hanging around with a guy from Australia, who I met, and he had a busted arm, broken nose, blackened eye. I wasn't as busted up, so I entered it and took another gold medal."
Van Meurs defeated an Italian opponent for gold in the semi-contact competition and his full contact championship was against a competitor from Khazakhstan, who had defeated a Russian in the semifinals.
"The guy from Khazakhstan had some crazy-good wrestling technique, but it was my 10 years of judo against his 10 years of wrestling," said Van Meurs, who fought Friday and Saturday in the first semi-contact event, and Sunday and Monday in the full-contact competition.
The 170pounder outlasted them all and added to his North American Youth MMA title he won in Las Vegas last spring.
His dream is to to become a UFC competitor, but at 17 he will have to wait.
"I'm going to focus on judo and wrestling nationals and hopefully go to worlds in both of those in the summer," he said.
He will also attempt to turn pro in the Armageddon Fighting Championship circuit based in Victoria when he turns 18 in April.
"I was definitely in the zone in Greece," said Van Meurs. "I was never more ready in my life. I was completely focused and where I needed to be physically. I walked in with determination to win."
And he walked out with not one, but two gold medals to prove it. [email protected]
