St. Maarten Martial Arts Federation (SMMAF) held Second Annual Spring Tournament last Saturday
SOUTH REWARD — St. Maarten Martial Arts Federation (SMMAF) held the Second Annual Spring Tournament on Saturday, May 26th, 2018, at MPC Gym in St. Peters. The event showcased two combat martial art for adults and children – Muay Thai Kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
78 competitors ranging from age 5 to 30 years participated. Invitations were extended to all combat martial arts organizations on St Maarten. Competitors hailed from Marco London’s Sityodtong Foundation, SXM BJJ/Renzo Gracie St. Maarten’s Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Teams and Saint Barths Jiu Jitsu Team.
The event began at 12pm after competitors signed in with a review of rules, safety and sportsmanship. Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu took place on two different mat areas simultaneously with their own set of trained officials. The two martial arts have different rule sets; Muay Thai is won by effective strikes from the hands and feet, and Jiu Jitsu is won by dominating an opponent via grappling, Judo and wrestling techniques. The match time for the youngest jiujitsu competitors, age 5-6 was two minutes, ages 7-13 was 3 minutes and adults competed for 5 minutes. Muay Thai was fought as a set of two 1 minute rounds for children and adults fought in 3 rounds of two minutes. During these rounds the competitors gave all their effort possible to score a victory. The event concluded at 4 pm. The Head of the Department of Sports Jonelle Richardson was present and was impressed with the turnout and high technical level of the athletes.
St. Maarten based Jiu Jitsu competitors included: Vlad Ahlip, Topper Jr Daboul, Selah Romney, Maxxwell Somersall, Christian van der Horst, Liam van Windt, Brandon Bertrand, Jaden Busby, Ziro Degrammond, Markus Hassell, Brandaen Illis, Justice Lawrence, Manuel Martina, Douglas Pearson , Jaiden Somersall, ‘Sona’ Sonakshee Sidhwa, Eldric Thebe, Kzar Williams, Izaiah Willems, Megan Whyte, Jayden Bertrand, Miles Cheasley, Ajay DayDay, Nicholas Florea Hassell, Lukas Hassall, Keziah Hoeve, Moises Martina, Sasha Leal, Savannah Ortega, Seybian Ortega, Connor Scripps-Ewing, Thomas ten Broeke, Omarion Thomas, Aiden Wilkie, Paul ten Broeke, Kyle Lake, Grace Cheasley, Renard Brison, Shaquannie Vanterpool, Wesley Hendrix and Carl Delgado.
The Muay Thai ring was represented by: Avish Wijesiriwardana, Iris Postma, Nicolas Schaede, Geraldo Schaede, Mohamed Yousef, Douglas Pearson, Brandaen Illis, Diandra Peterson, Yerrick Elsberth, Nihal Chugani, Jayden Jacobus, Jaden Busby, Akarsh Bhatia, Shafari Carbon, Shaquille Carbon, Sasha Leal, Kyle Lake, Jami Eloi, Andre Goberdham, Lisa Broxterman, Tyson Washington, Moreland LeBlanc, Trinity Rombley, Jahiam Winston, Robert Illis, Tino Chung, and David Henry.
The visiting Jiu Jitsu athletes from St Barths included: Rui Mendes Araujo, Benjamin Di Francisco, Floriane Aubin, Manon Aubin, Samana Bidet, Louisa Gautier, Amalya Aufrand, Malo Ballerin, Clément Georges, Kalani Giraud and Keziah Collet-Delanney.
SMMAF board of directors Marco London, Melissa Bardfield, Akeem Lewis and Moreland Le Blanc would like to thank all the officials, referees, volunteers, athletes and supporters for making the event a great success. Official sponsorship was generously provided by Heavenly Water. Plans for the next event is in the works for November 2018. For information on martial arts training on St. Maarten please contact info@sxmbjj.com.
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