Busta Fighters: Victims of their success?

Ainsley Walters, Freelance Writer

KEITH EDWARDS, a Jamaican judge, who officiated in the combined martial arts team's 10-2 victory over a United States line-up in a top International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) tournament in Connecticut last Saturday, yesterday said the Busta Fighters should not believe they're on easy street, heading into other major tournaments this year.

Jamaica wiped out a crack USA team, extending their winning streak at the annual tournament to four consecutive victories, putting away a team, which included gold medal winners from last year's ITF World Championships, which were held in Quebec, Canada.

Marked team

Edwards, the most senior of four judges for the bout, which featured a pair of officials from the competing countries, said Jamaica will be a marked team when they defend their World Continental Championships title at the US Open in Orlando.

"It was their second international win for the year and the competition will be tougher in Orlando," said the fifth degree black belt.

"They've now gone on 23 tours, unbeaten in team fighting, and everybody will be coming to the championship to beat Jamaica, whether in the early rounds or the final.

I guess the guys will have to step up their training a notch," he added.

Edwards said the Americans had expected to do much better against Jamaica but their stars lost crucial bouts to Kenneth Edwards, Alrick Wanliss and Nicholas Dussard.

"They took it in stride," he said. "I guess they realised they were properly beaten and there were no disputes," he pointed out.

Travelling judges

Explaining the need for travelling judges, Edwards outlined previous bad experiences when officiating was left up to host countries.

"Over the years, we were never able to find neutral judges when travelling, as most were from the host country," he pointed out.

"What used to happen, we won fights and at the end of the day we ended up losing. We started insisting on using two judges from each country and a panel of officials to overlook the score.

"We try to get the panel neutral but end up, a lot of times, using people from the host country. However, these are usually high-ranking officials from the martial arts community, people of integrity," Edwards added.