Ainsley Walters, Freelance Writer

The stable of fighters from the Jamaica Tae kwon do Association ruled su-preme, taking virtually every black belt title at the Busta Tae kwon do Open Championships held last weekend at the University of Technology (UTech) Audi-torium.

Jamaica Tae kwon do won the overall title for most medals in coloured and black belt divisions, defeating Future Leaders Eagle Karate for the first time ever.

The stellar event of the championships, black belt sparring, saw Dwayne Brown take the heavyweight divi-sion with great ease despite appearing not at his fittest.

The middleweight division was predictably won by the veteran Arthur Barrows.

Surprise victory

However, veteran fighter David Hall surprised favou-rites Jermaine Lue and Alrick Wanliss to lift the lightweight title.

Hall, a 34-year-old veteran, repeated his feat of returning from semi-retirement every other year to beat the island's youngest and most touted lightweights, doing so for the third time in five years.

The team division was also won by Jamaica Taekwondo, defeating Shai Tai Kick-boxing without dropping a fight.

The lone non-Tae kwon do gold medalist was Omar Rose, who took the third to fourth degree patterns, defeating Barrows.

However, when the pair met in the final of the middleweight division, Rose declined to fight Barrows as, traditionally, Combined Martial Arts team members do not oppose each other in finals.

Entries were received from more than 400 competitors for the two-day event and the grand champion trophy was shared between Barrows and Rose.

The female black belt grand champion was won by Future Leasers' S. Cum-mings, who won patterns and placed second to Allo Wanliss in sparring.

The female division lacked sufficient entries, resulting in all weights competing together as opposed to the men's competition, which had three separate divisions.

Jamaica College won the high schools team section, a tremendous improvement after placing last at the previous open.