DQ’d Ochoa settles for bronze

Margarita “Meggie” Ochoa, the face of the country’s promising jiujitsu program, settled for the bronze medal in the World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California, after being disqualified in the semifinals.

Ochoa lost the match with Amber Rymartz Freitas of Team Gracie Barra with 10 seconds left in their -48.5kg brown belt rooster weight division because of a technicality.

The Filipino held winning position and came that close toward having another shot at a gold medal, only to lose her footing and be caught in an illegal position.

“I was trying to submit the foot and we rolled into an illegal position,” said Ochoa, who defeated Luna Barea
of Spain and Japan’s Iori Echigo in the preliminaries to set up a semifinal clash with Freitas.

Ochoa, seeking for a possible qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where the sport will make its debut, is focused on winning the gold medal in the coming 30th Southeast Asian Games.

Up next for the Asian Games bronze medalist is the JJAU Asian Championship in Mongolia next month.

Ochoa ruled the 49kg women’s seniors class in the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship in Malmo, Sweden, in November last year apart from capturing the gold in the Jiu-Jitsu World Tour in London last March.