AN 18-MEMBER TEAM from Regional Organisation for Combat Karate (ROCK) returned to Barbados last Monday with 19 medals after dominating the combat sports divisions at the Pan-Caribbean International Martial Arts Championships.

The event, which served as a pre-qualifier for five major World Championships next year, was hosted by Professor Christopher Francis and the World Karate Union on October 21 and 22 at the Cascadia Hotel Conference Centre in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

They competed in the adult categories of submission grappling, kumite (point sparring) and breaking, with gold medals being awarded for first, second and third places.

For submission grappling, in the heavyweight division, Corey Weithers was first and Wayne Thomas third; in the middleweight division, Oneal Chase was first and David McDonald third, while Akilah Lashley was first and Lisa Gittens third in the women's middleweight division.

In point sparring, Victor Knight was third in the senior black belt division; Stephen Best, Romell Ellis and Adrian Forde swept the senior advanced (brown belt) division; Kevin Skeete was third in the intermediate division; Oneal Chase and George Thomas were first and second, respectively, in senior intermediate division and Akilah Lashley was third in the female novice division.

First place

In the creative breaking division, Victor Knight took first place; Ellis was second, Best third in the male board breaking division, while Lisa Gittens took first place in the women's division. Akilah Lashley was also first as part of a combined Barbados women point sparring team. Barbados were also represented by three other martial arts clubs at the tournament.

ROCK is the local combat karate club, responsible for teaching the internationally recognised style known as chameleon combat karate. This is the third international tournament for the year that members of ROCK competed, winning 32 medals, including 15 international championships, eight of them being World Championships.

They won 11 medals in March at the Battle of Columbus World Games in Columbus, Ohio, United States, and two medals in September at the World Martial Arts Hall Of Fame World Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.

The major sponsor for the group was Chickmont Foods Ltd. Other sponsors were Sagicor Life Inc., Roberts Manufacturing Co. Ltd., First Caribbean International Bank, Tower Bucknell Austin, Innovative Interior Design, Harris Paints and Cooper Kauffman Ltd. (PR)