Lindsay to receive special award at ISKA, AMA World Champs

JAMAICA’s Akino Lindsay, 29, is set to receive a special award in recognition of his impressive achievement of winning eight consecutive gold medals in two disciplines at the ISKA AMA World Championships, 2017-2023.

“It is an ISKA world record,” wrote Paul Hennessy, president, ISKA, Europe, in correspondence to Jason McKay, Jamaica ISKA president and Lindsay’s manager.

Lindsay’s exploits, winning eight individual gold medals in tatami competitions at International Sport Kick Boxing Association (ISKA) Amateur Members Association (AMA) World Championships, will be formally recognised by the European organisation on the eve of October’s tournament in Vienna, Austria.

Lindsay, coached by Claude Chin and managed by McKay, is a product of the Jamaica Taekwondo Association’s McKay Security High School Taekwondo programme, underwent early martial arts training at St George’s College and the Jamaica Taekwondo centre before being drafted into the McKay-led Jamaica Combined Martial Arts Team.

“I am actually feeling good to be recognised. It is a very, very difficult tournament to win, very physical, so the fact that I am being recognised, it shows that Jamaica, on the world stage of kick-boxing, we are very dominant. I just happy to know that Jamaica is dominant in kick-boxing,” Lindsay said recently during a break from training.

Lindsay, on a hat-trick of double gold medal victories ahead of Austria 2024 - winning gold in continuous and points sparring at Turkey 2022 and Germany 2023 - first completed the double on home soil in 2018 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, where he also won team gold in continuous sparring.

Renowned for his strength and speed, Lindsay is an iconic figure in ISKA tatami sparring.

“We don’t get recognised in Jamaica that much, so it’s good to know someone will. What the award has done is to give me extra motivation. I aim to get double gold every time,” he said.

Training, Lindsay added, gets no easier with Chin and McKay demanding his all.

“Training sessions are very long and hard. Every time I go out there, I go for gold. Being recognised doesn’t change anything for myself, the team, or my coaches. It is always going to be tough. You don’t want to get into scouting any specific fighter. You train for the tournament.”

Lindsay’s first two ISKA gold medals were in continuous sparring at Portugal 2015 and Greece 2017 before completing the continuous-points sparring double in Jamaica, Turkey, and Germany.

Lindsay’s award will be presented at the opening ceremony of the 2024 World Championships on October 23.

Among a six-man squad representing Jamaica at Vienna 2024, Lindsay is hell-bent on extending his world record to a hat-trick of double golds and 10 individual gold in point and continuous sparring categories.