CONGRATS : Jamaica win team gold at ISKA Championships

Sunday, July 10, 2016    

JAMAICA’s Nicholas Dusard, Kenneth Edwards and Richard Stone on Friday won an inspiring three-man team gold medal, in continuous sparring, to lift the spirits of the island’s martial artists at the International Sports Karate Association’s US Open World Martial Arts Championships in Florida.

(From left) Jamaica’s three-man team of Ningen Karate’s
Kenneth Edwards, Kingston Taekwon-Do’s Nicholas Dusard
and Richard Stone show off the their plaques for winning
gold in the three-man continous-sparring team event
 at the US Open.

Shaking off Thursday’s disappointment of losing the tournament-opening Gold Cup to New Zealand, Jamaica came out with vengeance in the three-man team final of the open to comprehensively dismiss a United States team 3-0.

“We needed that,” a satisfied captain Dusard said after the match. “We definitely redeemed ourselves. That win restored the morale of the team.”

Leaving nothing to chance, Jamaica swept their United States rivals, with Dusard starting the contest in storming fashion. Edwards, needing to prove a point after two close losses in the Gold Cup against New Zealand, gave his opponent no chance, putting Jamaica 2-0 up.

Stone, growing in confidence with each bout at the open, his first as a member of Jamaica’s combined martial arts team, anchored the team to victory with no hiccups.

A beaming Dusard said the Gold Cup “was just one of those things” which they hope to set right, starting with the three-man team match in addition to the individual bouts, which started late Friday inside the massive Veracruz ballroom of the Coronado Resort in Orlando, Florida.