Jamaican fighters kick back at martial arts championships

JAMAICA came roaring back at the International Sports Karate Association's US Open World Martial Arts Championships yesterday when Nicholas Dusard, Kenneth Edwards and Richard Stone landed gold in the three-man continuous-sparring division in Orlando, Florida.

The Jamaicans were elated to win a team title after losing the tournament-opening Gold Cup on Thursday, going down by a point to a crack New Zealand team.

Kingston Taekwon-Do's Nicholas Dusard gave Jamaica their usual hot start, getting a unanimous nod from all the judges. Edwards of Ningen Karate shrugged off his Gold Cup disappointment to put Jamaica ahead, leaving Stone to polish off their act in a clean sweep.

"We definitely redeemed ourselves," Dusard said after the match. "That win restored the morale of the team. We came out and did some hard work.

"The Gold Cup was just one of those things. We made up our minds to come out and prove that we still had it," he added.

Meanwhile, Jamaica were on course for multiple medals as action heated up late afternoon at the Coronado Resort with the country's top two female black belts, Future Leaders' Sheckema Cunningham and Kingston Taekwon-Do's Subrina Richards both headed for gold in their respective divisions.

Jamaica's peewee martial artists, high-schoolers and members of the junior combined High Potential Squad, were also in strong medal positions at press time. Today's action will feature points and clash sparring.