21-year-old Warawut Saengsriruang is a Ju-Jitsu expert in the discipline Duo, the most spectacular form of Ju-Jitsu competition.
At The World Games 2022 in Birmingham (USA), Saengsriruang was paired with Thai team-mate Lalita Yuennan (24) in the Duo Mixed class. As part of a very impressive Thailand set of results in Ju-Jitsu, they won the gold medals in a tight contest against Belgium, and were chosen as TWG Athletes of the Day for their skilful performance.
The same couple has now gone on to win gold medals at the 2024 Ju-Jitsu World Championships in two classes – and, as a result, have qualified for TWG 2025. “I am very excited about TWG 2025. My partner and I will try our best to win a medal,” says Saengsriruang.
Saengsriruang came to the attention of the top coaches in Thai Ju-Jitsu already at the age of 15: “I have been a member of the Thai national team for 6 years, participating in competitions 3 times a year,” he tells.
Initially these were national and Asian regional championships, but progress was rapid, and he and Juennan became so successful in Duo competitions that they qualified for TWG 2022. Here, they beat Romanian and Belgian couples in a pool round, then Germany by a comfortable margin in the semi-final, before facing Belgium again in the final. This proved to be an epic competition, with the judges final score 74.5 for Belgium – and 75.0 for Thailand!
Massive amounts of practice and technical preparation go into creating world-standard moves using the full variety of attack and defence tactics available. “Our team will practice 5 days a week,” says Saengsriruang – but on top of this, fitness training of all kinds takes up a great deal of time too.
The pair’s most recent competitions were at the Ju-Jitsu World Championships 2024, held on the Greek island of Crete in late October, where there were in all 780 competitors from 58 nations. Here, they took gold in both Duo Mixed and Duo Open, beating Italy in the final in both categories. A very good springboard for TWG 2025!
As a sporting lifestyle, Ju-Jitsu in general and Duo training and competition in particular have meant everything for Warawut Saengsriruang. “Ju-Jitsu makes me have more discipline. It affects everything in my life. I now have discipline in study, in my activities and in all the other parts of my life,” he says.
All looks well set for another fine TWG for Thailand Ju-Jitsu!
The International World Games Association (IWGA) is a non-profit-making international sports organisation recognised and supported by the International Olympic Committee. The IWGA comprises 40 International Member Sports Federations. It administers and promotes The World Games (TWG), a multi-sport event held every four years that features around 35 sports on its programme. The next edition of TWG will be in Chengdu (CHN) from 7-17 August 2025. 5,000 participants from more than 100 countries are expected to take part in this 12th edition. The latest Games were hosted by Birmingham, Alabama (USA).
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