VIDEO: Langley teen to compete in ADCC Jiu Jitsu World championship

VIDEO: Langley teen to compete in ADCC Jiu Jitsu World championship

VIDEO: Langley teen to compete in ADCC Jiu Jitsu World championship Published 11:45 am Friday, July 17, 2026 Lincoln Costello will be competing in the Youth Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championship in the U.S.

It will be the second trip to the championship for the 14-year-old from Langley City. Back in 2024 he came home from Las Vegas with a bronze medal. Costello is one of a handful of Canadian youth athletes invited to compete in the highly coveted Brazilian Jiu Jitsu event that takes place every two years, attracting top competitors from around the world.

He trains out of OnGuard Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Coach Matt Kwan and for wrestling out of Takedown Academy with Coach Aso Palani. “I’m excited to represent Canada and my teammates at OnGuard and Takedown,” he said. He is also the 2026 U17 Canadian wrestling national champion.

Anyone interested in following Lincoln’s journey can visit Instagram @lincinho_bjj. ADCC Youth World Championship takes place Aug. 9 in the Luedecke Arena at the Travis County Exposition Center in Austin, Texas. Wikipedia describes ADCC as the “most prestigious submission grappling tournament in the world,” noting it is commonly referred to as “the Olympics of grappling”.

ADCC was established by Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of then U.A.E. leader Sheik Zayed, In 1993, while he was studying in the U.S. Sheik Tahnoon became a fan of Mixed Martial Arts and began started studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. On returning home, Sheik Tahnoon created the ADCC to encourage martial arts not only in his native U.A.E. but also creating an international standard by which all ground fighting martial arts would be measured. Thousands of submission grappling tournaments around the world are said to use elements of the ADCC format and rules structure.

In 2023, ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim announced a children’s version of the ADCC World Championship would be held for the first time in 2024. READ ALSO: VIDEO: Long trip ends with gold medal for Langley grappler