IN any sport and for any athlete, the biggest enemy, unbeatable at that, is Father Time.

But some athletes succeeded in pushing him off at least for some time, the likes of Manny Pacquiao, George Foreman, Robert Jaworski, and Lebron James easily come to mind.

Now I can include a local female athlete, recently crowned world champion in the last jiu jitsu world championship in Heraklion in Greece just last month,

I am talking of Kimberley Anne Custodio, a former beauty titlist in her native Iloilo, from Oton in particular, who won her second world title in the 45kg. category at the age of 37, meaning she was 35 the first time around in Abu Dhabi.

And what makes it more impressive is that in the finals, ,she fought it out with the world’s number one ranked Balquez Abdoh Abdula from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Earlier Kimberley beat no.3 ranked Aysha Alshams, also from UAE, in the semifinals of the tourbament that attracted more than 700 entries from 58 countries.

Last year, she also competed but could only bring home a silver medal but how can anyone complain of a gold-silver- gold medal performance in three consecutive world championships. Certainly not me.

Now for a martial arts sport, to reach world champion level at 35 and 37 years old, consider too she only took up jiu jitsu at 27 but previously tried boxing first just to lose weight, and muay thai before deciding jiu jitsu as the sport for her, good choice it turned out.

Now why jiu jitsu, we asked Kimberley who runs the Carpe Diem gym in Makati with her coach and partner where 160 athletes are training under them, including a lot of kids 70 to be exact, as young as 3 years old.

The answer was simple and logical.

In jiu jitsu, no punching and kicking are allowed, the only combat sport that has ths rule, but where one can dominate bigger opponents into submission.

Another question I threw at her, what was the more fulfilling achievement between the two titles?

Kimberley treasures more the first one as she shared she was less certain of her chances in the competition, not knowing the quality of the competitors, plus the fact it was her first competition after covid and that she was on self training only prior to the Abu Dhabi tournament.

In Greece, she said her self confidence was on a higher level and she knew her opponents in her category, and it paid off.

So what does the future hold for her?

At her age now, she says she can retire anytime but is worried that she has no successor yet in her weight category, add too that she has yet to compete in the SEA Games and is looking forward to next year’s edition.

However when that time to finally retire from competition comes, she has already prepared for it, she wants to coach and that is actually what she is doing now, aside from accepting invitations for speaking engagements to share her path and the challenges she had to overcome before realizing her dreams..

I just hope she gets the rewards due her for her accomplishments.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Lito Cinco