Brown hunts karate gold in Madrid

Jamaican karate athlete Alton Brown hits the mat on Wednesday in Madrid, Spain, at the 24th World Karate Federation (WKF) World Championships, aiming at gold and automatic qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Games, when the martial art makes its Olympic debut at its birthplace.

Ranked 22nd in the world, Brown, who has dual nationality in Britain and Jamaica, recently transitioned to representing the Caribbean island. He is a former European, Commonwealth and British champion.

Brown came close to automatic Olympic qualification in September, competing at the latest event on the Karate1: Premier League circuit in Berlin, Germany, finishing seventh among the world's best 64 athletes who participated in his division, - 75kg.

He completed the tournament with outstanding performances against Estonia, Italy, Azerbaijan, Spain and Japan. Brown's performance in Berlin has been consistent with how he has distinguished himself against the top four WKF athletes in the world for the last year.

The Karate1: Premier League is the most important evens in the world of karate. It comprises a number of the most prominent karate competitions and brings together the best in the world in open championships of unprecedented scale and quality. The event in Berlin comprised 763 competitors from 72 countries.

Brown has travelled with a small delegation comprising coach Denys Morozov and St Ann native Nathaniel Peat, a Fifth Dan coach and Jamaica's WKF world representative who resides in the United Kingdom.

While in Madrid at the November 5-11 World Championships, Peat will be making representation at congress for Jamaica to be officially recognised as a WKF member with an eye on Olympic eligibility.

Brown said that competing for Jamaica was a dream come true.

"I have always wanted to reconnect with my roots as a second-generation Jamaican citizen and to compete as one of the best karate athletes in the world," he said. "To see the Jamaican flag flying high is one of my proudest moments. I want to use my talent to inspire a new generation of young Jamaican karate athletes and cannot wait to support that development."

Brown, who trains at Versa Karate Academy, will fight at -79kg in Madrid, is hoping to make it past the preliminaries and into Saturday's finals.