Guyana’s contingent to the 2011 Pan Caribbean Martial Arts Championship held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, returned home recently with a heap of awards, including a second place finish overall in the six-team event.
Guyana was represented by the Black Hawks Martial Arts Management Network (BHMAMN), which is based at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue.
Some members of the Black Hawks team pose with their belts and medals upon arrival in Guyana
BHMAMN, a team comprising 11 athletes and three officials, finished with 12 World titles, second to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, who finished with an astounding 45 belts each to share the podium’s prime spot.
However, both countries had a significantly larger field of athletes when compared to Guyana, with T& T having 65 and Barbados 58.
The U.S.A, with a team of 18, finished in third spot with five titles, followed by St Lucia and Grenada at the base of the table. According to assistant coach Garfield Newton, the BHMAMN had won last year’s event with a much larger unit.
Newton added that the tournament also served as the qualifier for the North American Federation of Martial Arts (NAFMA) Championship, which will be staged at Crown Plaza, Niagara Falls, Canada, on November 16-17 this year.
Newton also reported that five Guyanese were inducted into the Caribbean Martial Arts Alliance’s Hall of Fame. Newton himself was honoured for his outstanding contribution to martial arts, while the others were Roland Eudoxie (Black Belt-of-the-Year), Bertram Williams (Junior Black Belt-of-the-Year), Corwin D’Anjou (Junior Black Belt-of-the-Year), and Trevor Franklin (Junior Black Belt-of-the-Year).
A supremely fit Latteefah Hopkinson scored the fastest knockout of the tournament – a three-second knockdown of her Trinidad opponent in sparring
Newton further mentioned that Williams, D’Anjou and Franklin all gained promotion from the Intermediate category that they competed in this year; and as such, will vie for supremacy with the senior competitors in 2012.
The highlight for Guyana, according to Newton, was the stunning knockout achieved by young Latteefah Hopkinson, who floored her opponent from T& T in a mere three seconds into their sparring encounter.
Apart from Bakewell and Giftland OfficeMax, who partly sponsored two of the athletes, the rest of the contingent was self-sponsored.
Newton expressed appreciation to the two companies, as well as Lisa Mitchell of Travel Span, who also assisted the team.
The Pan Caribbean Martial Arts Championship was sanctioned by NAFMA, the World Karate Union, and the Caribbean Martial Arts Alliance.
