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Jamaica’s male combined martial arts team has won a gold medal while the female team has won silver at the 2013 US Open Gold Cup at the Coronado Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Olympian Kenneth Edwards twice closed out matches, against the United States and Argentina, to hand Jamaica gold yesterday after his teammates, Nicholas Dussard and Adrian Moore, put the unbeaten combined team in pole position.
Jamaica’s girls, led by captain Sheckema Cunningham, fought gallantly, romping past Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.
They, however, went down to Puerto Rico in a thrilling final with heads held high.
The male team, with the unbeatable duo of Edwards and Dussard, backed by the ever-improving Moore, got off to a flying start against Venezuela.
Moore took the mat first and skipped past his middleweight counterpart, leaving lightweight Dussard to hand Jamaica a 2-0 victory going into the semi-final against the United States.
Against the United States, Dussard was first out and easily stopped his rival.
However, Moore paired to fight the renowned Carlos Emanuel, and held to a draw.
Jamaica called out their big gun, Edwards, who showed his class to beat George Kayumov, the former Russian heavyweight now donning United States colours.
In the final, the reliable Dussard gave the combined team an early lead. Argentina, however, rallied as Moore lost his middleweight bout.
Edwards, however, closed the show in fine style with his flashy kicks to overwhelm his Argentinean heavyweight rival.
Jason McKay, who stood in as match coach for Claude Chin, said Jamaica’s sixth Gold Cup win underlined their dominance in team fighting.
“As I have always maintained, in weight-regulated team fighting, there’s no country in the world to beat Jamaica in continuous sparring.
“Coach Chin did a remarkable job preparing them and they were in tremendous shape. You can really see they’re ready for October’s World Champs in Spain,” McKay pointed out. SourceL Jamaica Gleaner
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