University of East London Homepage

First Class Honours for Jiu-Jitsu champion Asif

Thursday 5 July 2007

A University of East London (UEL) student is celebrating a double success – graduating with first-class Honours in his Physiotherapy degree just a month after triumphantly defending his super-featherweight title at a major international Jiu-Jitsu championship.

Asif Patel (26), of Hackney, won gold in his category at the annual Abu-Dhabi International Cup on May 12. Since then, he has successfully completed his BSc (Hons) degree in Physiotherapy and secured a job as a junior physiotherapist at Newham Primary Care Trust, where he spent a five-week placement as part of his degree last year.

Asif said: “It’s been a really exciting summer so far. After winning in Abu-Dhabi last year, I was personally invited to this year’s competition by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – the Crown Prince of Abu-Dhabi himself!

“To win again was amazing, and getting a first is as good as any gold medal. At times, it’s definitely been a challenge to balance my studies and sport, but I’m really pleased to have done so well in both areas.

“Studying Physiotherapy has really helped my Jiu-Jitsu career; it’s given me a much better understanding of the mechanisms of my body and how I can control and protect them. And practising Jiu-Jitsu has definitely aided my studies; it’s improved my self-discipline and taught me a lot about successfully learning with others.

“I’m now really enjoying my job as a junior physiotherapist, working in the Newham community, particularly with people with learning disabilities. I’m applying all the skills that I learnt on my course, and it’s extremely rewarding to see how quickly my patients improve.”

Asif, a member of the Roger Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, is now training for the World Jiu-Jitsu championship, to be held in Los Angeles this August. Closer to home, he is working on community youth sport projects organised by Hackney and Newham councils.

Asif said: “With the Olympics coming to East London, there’s a strong interest in sport and great opportunities to get more and more young people involved. Hopefully, by 2012, Jiu-Jitsu will have become an Olympic sport, and I’ll be able to go for the greatest medal of all!”

The University of East London has the longest-running Physiotherapy degree in the UK. For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk or call 020 8223 4435

Ends/.

For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

Information for screenreader users:

For a general description of these pages and an explanation of how they should work with screenreading equipment please follow this link: Link to general description

For further information on this web site’s accessibility features please follow this link: Link to accessibility information