By REYNALD MAGALLON
Annie Ramirez and Kimberly Custodio struck a pair of gold medals in the 2026 JJIF World Championships as a fitting warm up for Filipino grapplers ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games next month.
Ramirez defeated Diana Lomei from Ukraine, 9-2, to rule the women’s -57 kilogram class while Custodio dominated the women’s -45kg class sweeping her four matches, including one against compatriot Eliecha Zoe Malilay to claim the gold.
Malilay still landed on the podium with a bronze.
The win for the 35-year-old Ramirez marked her third gold medal in the JJIF world meet after also winning the gi and no-gi categories in the same class in the 2025 edition in Bangkok, Thailand.
Ramirez is also coming off a gold medal performance at the 10th Jiu Jitsu Asian Championship in Kazakhstan last month, giving her the much-needed momentum ahead of the Asiad.
The two gold medals highlighted an impressive showing for the PH grapplers who finished the world meet at the fourth spot after also bagging a silver and four bronzes.
Kaila Napolis claimed the silver in the women’s -52kg division while Melondrina Viray and Alex Enriquez won the bronzes in the -48kg and -63kg classes, respectively. The other bronze came from Michael Vijay Cater finishing third in the male -56kg category.
