Vol. 1 · No. 5/Monday 5 October 2026/Published in Melbourne, Australia/Independent · No broadcast rights · No affiliate links
MATSIDE
The grappling paper of record — Asia & Oceania deskmatside.com.au
The Roll CallEvery child on the podium at the NSWBJJF Spring Cup, Sydney, 4 October.
Competitor—
Division—
Event—
Result—
Nagoya · Asian Games ju-jitsu215 contests, 214 with a method on the record
DIVISIONS8
COMPETITORS192
NOCS25
The Record · Ju-Jitsu at the 20th Asian Games · Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall, Nagoya
Same Week, Two Records
In eight days this desk recorded 401 jiu-jitsu contests in two countries. The official record of the 215 fought in Nagoya says how 214 of them were won. The official record of the 186 fought at Wollongong says how none of them were. The difference is not the sport.
Correction, 27 October 2026: the comparison this article is built on is wrong. Wollongong's record carries a method for all 186 contests. See Corrections below.
By The Cornerman · Matside · Melbourne
Melbourne — Between Sunday 27 September and Saturday 3 October this desk recorded two competitions. At The Snakepit Stadium in Gwynneville: ninety-three kids divisions, 186 contested matches, 196 children. At the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall in Nagoya: eight divisions of the 20th Asian Games, 215 contests, 192 competitors from twenty-five national Olympic committees.
Vol. 1 No. 4 reported that the Wollongong record carried no method against a single one of its 186 matches — no submission, no score, no advantage, no referee decision — and asked AFBJJ and Grappling Bros to publish method and time. The standing answer to that request is that it is unrealistic: that officials are busy, that the day is long, that nobody has time to type it.
Nagoya answers it. Of 215 contests, 214 carry a method in the published record. One hundred and one were decided on points, with the score published for each. Fifty-one ended in submission. Fifty were decided on advantages. Five by disqualification, three by walkover, two on penalties, two on injury. The record was final and marked Official on all eight divisions within hours of the last contest.
The same question, asked of the same sport in the same eight days, got two different answers. Only one of them is a record.
The honest comparison is not of effort. Nagoya had three days and a multi-sport federation's timing crew; Wollongong had one day and four mats and ran a comparable number of matches in a sixth of the time. The comparison is of what the two days left behind. A parent in Gwynneville and a parent in Nagoya can both look up who won. Only one of them can find out how.
What Nagoya also shows is that the method is not a luxury item added when there is time. It is a field in the same form as the winner, filled by the same official, in the same second. Where the form requires it, it gets filled. Where it does not, it does not — and six months later the difference between the two days is total.
The exception. One contest in Nagoya breaks the run. A men's −69kg quarterfinal between Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Ibrahim M Bin Huraymil and Korea's Seonghyeon Joo is scored 2–2 and marked Official, and it carries no winner and no method. Both men went on to fight for bronze that afternoon and both took one. Which of them won the quarterfinal is not in the published record, and this paper has not entered a guess. The division is filed as partial; the other seven are complete.
And a third, the day after. The NSW BJJ Federation's Spring Cup ran at Sydney Uni on Sunday 4 October, 623 athletes, 118 of its 220 divisions for children. Its published placings are recorded below, and every one of them now has a permanent address. Its match-by-match record is not in the register yet, and until it is this paper will not say what that record does or does not contain.
All eight Nagoya divisions, all 215 contests, every score and every method are now at matside.com.au/brackets/, one permanent address per division, searchable by competitor, nation and event, beside the ninety-three kids brackets from Wollongong. They will not be moved and they will not be deleted.
The Long Match · Nagoya
Twenty-five flags came. Nine went home with anything.
One hundred and ninety-two competitors from twenty-five national Olympic committees fought in Nagoya. Thirty-two medals were decided — eight gold, eight silver, and sixteen bronze, because every division ran two bronze contests. Nine nations took one. Sixteen took none.
The medal table reads: UAE five gold, two silver, one bronze. Saudi Arabia two gold, three bronze. Thailand one gold, two bronze. Korea two silver, four bronze. Kazakhstan two silver, three bronze. Philippines one silver, one bronze. Jordan one silver. Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia one bronze each.
Ju-jitsu is on this programme because West Asia nominated it — the Olympic Council of Asia let each of its five geographic zones put forward one sport on the strength of its popularity there. West Asia's three entrants in the medal table, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, took seven of the eight golds and fourteen of the thirty-two medals. Two of the eight finals were contested by two Emiratis. The zone that chose the sport won the sport.
Japan, the host, entered eight competitors in the sport whose name is Japanese, and none of them reached a medal contest.
The three largest teams were Mongolia, Korea and the UAE at sixteen each, then the Philippines, Thailand and Kazakhstan at fifteen, and Vietnam at thirteen. Size did not convert: Mongolia's sixteen produced one bronze, Vietnam's thirteen produced nothing at all.
A medal table deletes the other sixteen flags, and they are most of what happened. Malaysia sent one man, Adam Akasyah, who won his first contest by submission and lost his second on points. Iraq sent one, Amro Mohammed Fadhil Al-Sammarraie, who won his round of sixteen when Japan's Shinji Morito was hurt, lost his quarterfinal to an injury of his own, and did not come out for the repechage. Laos sent three, one of them entered in the women's −52kg under a given name with no surname beside it — recorded here as the organiser entered it, uncorrected.
None of those four will appear in any account of these Games. They are in the register, at a permanent address, with the date and the result and the name of the person across from them. That is the whole of the argument for keeping one.
Nagoya, all eight divisions, as the record closed
20th Asian Games · Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall, Nagoya · 1–3 October 2026
Every contest of the eight ju-jitsu divisions, taken from the Games' own results system after all eight were marked Official. Kept permanently, corrected in place. Every bracket, searchable →
8 gold · 8 silver · 16 bronze — two bronze contests per division
Golds to the nominating zone
7 of 8
UAE 5 · Saudi Arabia 2 — West Asia nominated the sport
Sydney, kids divisions, as the placings were published
NSWBJJF Spring Cup 2026 · Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness, Darlington · 4 October 2026
Six hundred and twenty-three athletes competed across 220 divisions. One hundred and eighteen of those divisions were children's, holding 363 entries. What follows is the placing record the organiser published, counted from it and not from any summary of it.
The record
Count
Note
Kids divisions
118
Of 220 run at the event
Entries in them
363
Places in the draw, not children — one child may enter more than one
With a placing table
115
Three kids divisions published none
Placings published
314
115 gold · 114 silver · 85 bronze
Children on the podium
225
From 57 academies
Gi and no-gi
76 · 39
Of the divisions that published a placing
Boys' and girls' divisions
81 · 34
Of the divisions that published a placing
A gold with no silver
1
One division's table names a first place and no second
In the register
115 divisions
Placings, names and academies, at a permanent address each
Match record in the register
Not yet
The contests go in at the same addresses when this desk has read every bracket
Counted from the organiser's published results page, read on 5 October 2026. Thirty bronze places short of one per division is not an error in the record: a bracket of two or three has no third place to award, and this paper does not invent one.
The bracket
20th Asian Games — Ju-Jitsu · Nagoya · 1–3 October 2026
Round
Match
Method
R64
Alfadhli, Omar def. Kumada, Kenshin
Points 5–0
R64
Fukushima, Seiya def. Oktyabri, Turbold
Points 13–0
R64
Ashkanani, Ali def. Baluyo, Yman Xavier
Points 4–0
R32
Batyrbekov, Nurzhan def. Alfadhli, Omar
Points 5–0
R32
Lee, Jaeyoung def. Sao, Sopheara
Submission
R32
Lim, Marc Alexander def. Choijamts, Tuvdentarvaa
Advantages
R32
Dang, Dinh Tung def. Owdetallah, Izzeddin
Advantages
R32
Tianguber, Ramazan def. Soonthorn, Sarin
Points 6–2
R32
Rahmatullayev, Elbek def. Abdualimov, Nasim
Points 11–0
R32
Banjar, Elyas Zwawi Y def. Ghul, Mahmoud
Penalties
R32
Lim, Noah Tian Run def. Aldousari, Yousef
Advantages
R32
Kuatuly, Alinur def. Fukushima, Seiya
Advantages
R32
Andeez, Ahmed def. Om-feld, William Chan
Points 4–0
R32
Hussaini, Mohammad Sarwar def. Le, Trong Hoang
Submission
R32
Abdymanapov, Argen def. Hsu, Ching-chih
Advantages
R32
Hasdee, Kunnapong def. Rustamov, Sirojbek
Advantages
R32
Bin Huraymil, Mohammed Ibrahim M def. Nazrizoda, Mahmudjon
Submission
R32
Omet, Mohammad def. Syvanevilay, Chindavone
Submission
R32
Joo, Seonghyeon def. Ashkanani, Ali
Points 2–0
R16
Batyrbekov, Nurzhan def. Lee, Jaeyoung
Points 8–2
R16
Lim, Marc Alexander def. Dang, Dinh Tung
Points 2–0
R16
Tianguber, Ramazan def. Rahmatullayev, Elbek
Advantages
R16
Lim, Noah Tian Run def. Banjar, Elyas Zwawi Y
Submission
R16
Andeez, Ahmed def. Kuatuly, Alinur
Advantages
R16
Abdymanapov, Argen def. Hussaini, Mohammad Sarwar
Points 2–0
R16
Bin Huraymil, Mohammed Ibrahim M def. Hasdee, Kunnapong
Submission
R16
Joo, Seonghyeon def. Omet, Mohammad
Points 2–0
QF
Batyrbekov, Nurzhan def. Lim, Marc Alexander
Points 4–2
QF
Lim, Noah Tian Run def. Tianguber, Ramazan
Points 4–0
QF
Andeez, Ahmed def. Abdymanapov, Argen
Points 2–0
QF
Bin Huraymil, Mohammed Ibrahim M v Joo, Seonghyeon
The official results system records this contest as Official and carries no winner and no method for it.
Winner not published
SF
Batyrbekov, Nurzhan def. Lim, Noah Tian Run
Points 7–0
SF
Andeez, Ahmed — bye
No match
REP
Lim, Marc Alexander def. Tianguber, Ramazan
Advantages
REP
Bin Huraymil, Mohammed Ibrahim M def. Abdymanapov, Argen
Disqualification
BRZ
Joo, Seonghyeon def. Lim, Marc Alexander
Advantages
BRZ
Bin Huraymil, Mohammed Ibrahim M def. Lim, Noah Tian Run
Advance notice · Pan Pacific, Melbourne, 17–18 October
The Record · The next event this desk records in full
The IBJJF Pan Pacific Championship runs at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Stadium 5, Albert Park, on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, with the Pan Pacific Kids on the Sunday at the same venue. It is the largest junior event of the year on this desk's own mats. Advance notice of it ran in Vol. 1 No. 3; the deadlines have moved since, and the first one falls this week.
Item
Detail
Date
Entries
Registration closes 11:59pm local, or earlier if the event fills
Wed 7 Oct
Venue
Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Stadium 5, Albert Park
17–18 Oct
Kids
Mighty-Mite 2–4 · Pee-Wee 5–7 · Junior 8–10 · Teen 11–13 · belt must match the age group
Sun 18 Oct
Juvenile
Juvenile 1 (born 2010) and Juvenile 2 (born 2009) · white, blue, purple
17–18 Oct
Weigh-in
Immediately before competition · one attempt at weight
On the day
What we will record
Every division, every placing, every name spelled as it was registered — and the method against every match the organiser publishes one for
From 18 Oct
Dates and division bands are taken from the IBJJF event pages for the Pan Pacific Championship and the Pan Pacific Kids Championship, read on 5 October 2026. The affiliation deadline printed in Vol. 1 No. 3 has passed; an unaffiliated academy can no longer enter anyone for this event.
What we still cannot settle
Open questions · carried until answered
Who won the men's −69kg quarterfinal. Bin Huraymil and Joo are scored 2–2 and the contest is marked Official with no winner and no method. Both took a bronze later the same day, so the omission changes no medal, but one of two men beat the other in front of a table of officials and the public record does not say which. We are asking, and the division stays partial until it is answered.
Which ju-jitsu this was. Raised in Vol. 1 No. 4 and still open. The programme names eight weight divisions and no discipline. The published scoring — submissions, points and advantages, with no duo or show events on the programme — is consistent with ne-waza, and that is an inference, not a designation. No official page we can find names it.
What the Spring Cup brackets say about how its matches were won. The placings are published, recorded above and now held at 115 permanent addresses. The contest-by-contest record sits on a separate bracket page for each division and this desk has not finished reading them. Until it has, we will not characterise what those pages contain, and each Sydney division says so on its own page rather than implying a record it does not hold. The contests go in dated, in place, when the reading is done.
Whether the Wollongong open-weight prize was paid. Carried from Vol. 1 No. 4. One division met the published condition of eight competitors and seven did not. Nothing further has been published and we have had no answer.
The Corner · Editorial
A sport gets the record somebody is paid to keep.
The Cornerman
Editor · Melbourne · 5 October 2026
Melbourne — It would be comfortable to read last week's two days as a lesson about culture — that an Asian Games is serious and a Sunday open is not, that one set of officials cares more than the other. That reading is wrong and it is also useless, because nobody can act on it.
Here is the difference that can be acted on. In Nagoya the record is a deliverable. A results supplier is engaged, a system is specified, and somewhere in that specification is a field called method that an official is required to fill before the next contest can be called. The record exists because producing it is somebody's paid job and somebody else's contractual right to receive it.
At Wollongong there is no such person and no such clause. The bracket software offers the field; filling it is optional; the event is paid for by entry fees that buy mats, referees, medals and a venue, and nothing in that transaction buys a record. What survives the day is a by-product, and by-products are not maintained.
So the request this paper made a week ago was aimed slightly wrong. Asking officials to type four more characters out of goodwill will work on the days a particular person is rostered and fail on the days they are not. The thing to ask for is smaller and duller: that a sanctioning body write the method field into the conditions of sanction, the way the Games wrote it into a contract. One sentence in a rulebook outlasts a thousand good intentions on a Sunday.
Until somebody does, this desk will keep paying for it in the only currency it has, which is reading every bracket by hand and holding the copy. We would much rather be made redundant. A paper of record that is the only record is not a success. It is a symptom.
Corrections
Standing log · § 4.1
27 October 2026 — the comparison at the centre of this issue is wrong. This issue said the official record of the 186 contests fought at Wollongong says how none of them were won, and set that against Nagoya's 214 of 215. The organiser in fact published a method, score and time for all 186. This desk had read only the bracket as drawn on screen and missed the match data behind it, the error first made in Vol. 1 No. 4. The Nagoya figures stand. The Corner in this issue argues from the same mistaken premise and should be read with this correction. The Wollongong divisions in the register now carry the organiser's methods. The text below is left as published (§ 4.2). — The Cornerman
5 October 2026 — archived issues, bracket module. The bracket panel printed inside each archived issue was being filled with the most recent event this desk had recorded, rather than the event that issue was published with. Readers opening Vol. 1 No. 3 were shown the Wollongong kids brackets in place of the Kraków men's −66kg bracket the issue was actually about. Each archived issue is now pinned to its own event and will not move again. No published text was changed; what changed is which bracket the page displays. See Vol. 1 No. 3 →
How this was checked
Every Nagoya contest, score, winner and method on this page and in the eight bracket files published with it is read from the Aichi–Nagoya 2026 official results system on 5 October 2026, after all eight divisions were marked Official. No secondary account was used, and nothing has been added from any broadcast, federation release or report.
Three hundred and four contest slots were scheduled across the three days; 215 contests and one bye were fought. We have recorded what was fought and have not carried the empty slots into the register as matches.
Names are recorded in the form the organiser entered them — surname first, in capitals, as the results system prints it — and each entry keeps that exact string beside the reading form used in the brackets. Where the organiser entered only one name, only one name is recorded. We have corrected no spelling.
The draw in each division ran with a repechage and two bronze-medal contests, so it is not a single-elimination tree. Rather than draw a shape the competition did not have, each division is published as a full contest log in the order the contests were fought.
The Wollongong figures quoted in comparison are recounted from the ninety-three bracket files published with Vol. 1 No. 4, not restated from that issue's text.
The Sydney figures are counted from the NSWBJJF Spring Cup results and bracket listings on the organiser's own event pages, read on 5 October 2026. Division counts and entry counts come from the bracket listing; placings from the results page. The prize money, ranking points and anniversary season are quoted from the event's own information page.
The organiser publishes a nationality beside each name on that results page. It is not recorded here. Under § 3.3 an entry for a competitor under eighteen carries what the bracket records — name, division, academy and result — and nothing the bracket does not.
The roll call at the head of this issue is the Sydney register and nothing else: 314 placings across 115 children's divisions, read from the same page, each line one child in one division.