A 49-YEAR-OLD, mum-of-three became the first Bahraini woman ever to win a gold medal in the GI/blue belt/under 49kg/Master 1 category at the AJP Tour Abu Dhabi World Masters Jiu Jitsu Championship 2023 in the UAE capital last week.
Ema Janahi defeated Brazilian Taise Mazurek by arm-bar submission in the final of her division after having earlier beaten the same opponent, also by submission, in a preliminary round fight.
However, despite being the first Bahraini woman to win the blue belt/under49kg/Master1 division in the Abu Dhabi World Masters, she is not the first female from the kingdom to have clinched gold in the tournament– that honour belongs to Sughra Mubarak, who won two gold medals in 2018 (white belt) and 2021 (purple belt).
Janahi – who has three sons: Yousif, 25, Mohammed, 23, and Tariq, 19 – had earlier created history last January when she became the first Bahraini woman to ever win a medal in an International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) event when she won silver in the Blue Belt Female Master Four category at the 2023 European Jiu Jitsu IBJJF Championship in Paris.
And that came only three months after Janahi became the first Bahraini woman to ever win a gold medal in a competition in Europe when she triumphed in the Women’s GI/Blue/Master1/55kg division at the Abu Dhabi Jiu Jitsu Pro (AJP) Tour Rome International Pro – GI and NO-GI tournament in Italy in October, 2022.
And she added to her growing collection of gold medals by winning in her division at the IBJJF International Master Europe tournament in Barcelona last May and again at the AJP Tour Europe Continental Jiu Jitsu Championship 2023 in Istanbul last month.
Remarkably, Janahi, who recently completed her PhD in Higher Education and Employability from the University of Sheffield, has accomplished all this in less than three years since taking up jiu jitsu towards the end of 2020.
“I’m really glad that I managed to win gold at this event because I’d been working towards that aim all year long,” Janahi told the GDN in an exclusive interview.
“But I’m also a bit relieved because it’s been a difficult journey these last few months. I’ve struggled with injuries throughout the year, first with my left leg, then a fractured finger sustained in Barcelona, then a more serious injury to my right leg in Istanbul.
“To add to it all, I had to drop my weight from 57kg to below 49kg as required for this competition but I managed to do it and, at the weigh-in, I was actually 48.8kg, so just two points below the requisite weight!”
An accomplished scuba diver who relishes doing underwater photography, Janahi juggles her jiu jitsu commitments with her job as director of allied health sciences at Bahrain Polytechnic but, despite her crowded, hectic daily schedule, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“This sport has altered my life in so many different ways,” she explained.
“And now, all three of my sons – one of whom just got married and the wedding of the second one is coming up – have taken it up too. So we train together at the gym and the elder two have already competed in different tournaments.”
Then, Janahi chuckled as she recounted how she celebrated winning gold at the Abu Dhabi World Masters. After having battled her leg injury as well as enduring a strenuous training schedule along with having to stick to a particular diet in order to trim her weight to the requisite level in the lead-up to the Abu Dhabi World Masters, she decided to celebrate in the simplest – and also the best – way possible.
“I went to the fanciest restaurant I could find and just ate and ate and ate,” she laughed.
“Throughout my preparation for this tournament, all I could think about was food, a proper meal where I didn’t have to be particular about what I was eating! So it was only natural that, when I won, I treated myself to some very good food!”
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