Four Yukon martial arts fighters recently returned from the Tiger Balm International tournament in Vancouver.

The three fighters which train in Whitehorse, under the name the Dragons, hooked up with former local resident Reggie McGinty, who now trains in Vancouver at the Marcus Soares brazilian jiujitsu club.

They wrestled four medals from the hands of some very stiff competition, fighting in both the Brazilian and sport jiujitsu divisions.

Buck Smarch and McGinty each won a gold medal while Jesse Warren and Eduardo Aragon each brought home a silver medal. The tournament, now in its 28th year, was held at the campus of Capilano College in North Vancouver.

Fighting for a second time in the Brazilian heavyweight division, and maintaining a perfect record, Smarch dominated a worthy opponent for the right to gold in the advanced category.

Using an overwhelming wrestling attack, Smarch forced his larger opponent to the mat, where he outscored him 17-7.

This match was a veritable chess-game of skill and power as the two men traded pins and hold-downs to earn points. Smarch was the faster of the two and scored 11 straight points before his opponent was able to reverse him. After a gutsy comeback by his opponent, Smarch used superior application of force to secure the win.

With thirty seconds on the clock, Smarch put the match to rest when he caught his opponent in a choke-hold and forced him to tap-out, winning by submission.

The win by Smarch earned him a second-straight appointment to the Canadian Brazilian jiujitsu team, as well as his second straight gold-medal finish.

The middleweight division saw two medals awarded to the Yukon, as McGinty and Warren squared-off against each other in the gold medal final. McGinty looked ready when he demolished his first opponent, tapping him out in the second minute of the fight, and had his game face on when he met Warren.

Warren earned the right to vie for gold, and be on Team Canada, when he dispatched his opponent in 39 seconds of the opening round of competition.

The Tiger Balm is a single-elimination round robin tournament; meaning that after one win each, both Warren and McGinty would get a single shot at the title.

With gold on the line, both athletes fought their hearts out and held nothing back.

The two men locked up in a clinch before Warren used a foot-sweep to send McGinty crashing to the mat. McGinty then pulled Warren into his guard immediately after landing, and Warren was forced to play inside the guard of a Brazilian jiujitsu expert.

He attempted to choke out McGinty with a Gi (jacket lapel) choke, but McGinty held on, never allowing him the leverage he needed to secure the choke.

After a lot of wrangling, McGinty used his natural quickness to upend Warren and pin the fighter for four points. Warren then tried to use the upa' body-sweep to once again land in his opponent's guard, where he again tried to use the Gi choke. Because Brazilian jiujitsu doesn't award points for a body-sweep, unless the guard is broken, Warren was forced to try and break McGinty's closed guard.

Strength and determination on the part of McGinty kept Warren at bay. Unable to force open the guard, Warren showed a lot of heart in continuing to choke McGinty and trying to win decisively by submission.

After three minutes of fighting, McGinty was awarded the judges' decision, outscoring Warren.

Day two saw another medal awarded to the Yukon, this time in sport jiujitsu. This is a hybrid of Brazilian jiujitsu, and incorporates elements of karate, judo, wrestling and kickboxing it is truly a mixed martial art.

Fighting for the Dragons, Aragon lost a tough one in the gold medal match to Ryan (no last name given) of Terrace, B.C.

The two minute, single-round, single-elimination fight showcased a lot of action. Both fighters came out swinging, and each received a judges' penalty for uncontrolled head-contact (Ryan) and punching an opponent while grabbing the Gi (Aragon).

After the penalty break, Ryan kicked Aragon once before the fight went to the ground, and was awarded a mount-count, which could have seen him score after a 10 count.

However, Aragon broke into a half-guard to deny Ryan the mount, and the fighters were stood up by the judge.

Aragon then threw a body-punch combination, which he landed before being thrown to the ground by a Tai-O-Toshi technique. This throw cost Aragon the fight, and after time ran out, he suffered a loss by judges' unanimous decision.

Aragon took the silver medal, his first at the Tiger-Balm.