A TENACIOUS team from Inverclyde Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu were on cloud nine as they triumphed at a top competition.

The five-strong squad excelled themselves at the All Stars BJJ Northern Pro contest in Manchester, bringing home nine individual medals - four golds, four silvers and one bronze.

Despite being such a small team, they proved to be a force to be reckoned with after being awarded the second place team trophy.

Reece McEwan of Greenock, who won two gold medals at the event, said it was a proud moment for him and his team-mates who are trained by head coach Ian Gilmartin.

Reece said: "We had a competition in November where we had the most amount of people competing in one day and we had a lot of milestones.

"This competition in December was the most medals collected by the team in one day so this competition created more milestones."

Reece was the top purple belt of the tournament while team-mate Davide Moretti was top blue belt and also claimed gold, silver and bronze medals.

James Kemp took gold and silver medals while John Lamont and Ryan Clark also picked up silver medals.

Reece says the recipe for their success is the hard work they put in together with their excellent head coach.

He said: "It's the work that we have put in and the environment.

"A lot of people that compete don't have that intention to start with but they fall in love with the training.

"They start as a person who trains for fun and then it turns into a passion and they want to progress their training.

"Our head coach Ian Gilmartin sets the standards very high."

Next month, Reece will make his professional MMA debut after a four year amateur career.

He will be competing at the Evolution Of Combat show on Saturday February 15 in Glasgow.