Standing on top of the world.

Members of the Barbados Karate team at the Grantley Adams International Airport before they left for the World Championship in Canada.

The Olympics and the World Championships are considered to be the pinnacle of any sporting discipline and many athletes strive not only to reach this goal but also to reign supreme.

Karate, more specifically Shotokan Karate has carried not only me but the Barbados Karate team through all the different levels of competition and finally to the top, though it was not the Olympics.

It was the World Championships.

Hundreds of competitors from all walks of life and all over the globe were on hand to participate in the prestigious World Championships held in Toronto Canada in 2008.

The age old saying, ‘hard work pays off’ has been proven to be true on countless occasions. The coaches of the Barbados team also believed in this concept and set out preparing us for this monumental feat, months in advance of the Championships.

What started out as three days a week of rigours training sessions that lasted no less than two hours, turned into six days a week with five months left to go. However there were challenges along the way with an uprising of the young adult competitors who wanted to challenge the more experienced members for the right to represent Barbados.

Competition is healthy and necessary if one is to obtain the best team possible and with the final selection of the team not yet made the young adults went about the task of making their way onto the team.

A tournament with the goal of selecting the members was held and the coaches and senior instructors were the judges.

The major spot up for grabs was the men’s team kata.

Team kata is where three members perform a kata (a sequence of moves depicting a fight also called forms), in a synchronised manner.

The judges could not decide after the first kata, and asked for a second one to be performed and still they were undecided. However the crowd was not and were heavily in favour of the younger team with the loud cheers the erupted from the stands after the performance.

Michael Mercer (left) performing a kata during individual men's kata eliminations

Despite this the older, more experienced team were selected over the other one but an injury to their team captain left them short.

With only a few weeks left to the Championships the selectors decided to call up the other team and ask them to prepare to represent Barbados.

The disappoint from the tournament saw them no longer practicing for the event but concentrating on other areas until the call was made at short notice asking the team to work and train in this area. Training was now forced to go up to seven days a week and on some days twice a day.

This team comprised of Michael Mercer, Kevin Cox and Corey Greaves and as they took to the wooden floor at the Ryerson University in Canada, everyone wanted to see what this team from the small Caribbean of Barbados had to offer.

Corey Greaves, Kevin Cox and Michael Mercer are collecting their World Championship bronze medals.

In a hair rising performance, the team captured Barbados first ever team medal at a World Championships. It was bronze as they were beaten by Canada who won gold and the USA who won silver.

In the juniors Kristopher Coppin was crowned the World Champion, while Cameron King won the kumite title.

Barbados Sports: The race that should not have been run

Barbados Sports: The race that should not have been run: Four of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship cars (from right) Roger Mayers, Barry Mayers, David Summerbell and partially hidden is S...

Barbados Sports: Karting for all ages... Zane Maloney leads standin...

Barbados Sports: Karting for all ages... Zane Maloney leads standin...: Drivers waiting to be weighed on the scales with their karts A sport for all ages. That is how Go-Karting or just karting, can be...

The race that should not have been run

Four of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship cars (from right) Roger Mayers, Barry Mayers, David Summerbell and partially hidden is Stuart Williams

Have you even taken a drive in the middle of the night without any head lights on?

How about taking that same drive as fast as you can on a dark stretch of road?

Sounds dangerous and like complete madness, doesn't it?

Well that is just what the top group of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship series did when the second round was held at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit in Barbados a few weeks ago.

The first round of the series was held at Dover Jamaica and the second round in Barbados, while the third and final round will be held in Guyana.

With each round hosting three races, it was the third and final race of this group which left many spectators and drivers with their mouth wide open and shaking with fear.

The sun was quickly fading, and the organisers failed to move up the feature races of their international race meet, but instead stuck to the original script and under the cover of darkness the highly modified cars started their engines.

Some of the car cost in the region of quarter million dollars, and everyone except the organisers were left in shock as the Caribbean’s top cars and drivers took to the track for this daring race.

None of the cars are fitted with head lights as they are built for circuit racing during the daylight hours and the Bushy Park track did not have any lights around it either.

One of the committee members for BARL Kurt Seabra said I caught up with him that “it is a bit of an oversight that we did not squash some other races and get the CMRC races in.”

“We ran late nothing due to our fault but every thing was late, getting the cars and I think we did a fantastic job to get where we did at this race meet.

“We were going along all the time and thinking that we would get the races in and get them in by 6:30 p.m. which is fine but it didn’t turn out that way.

“I think the (Countries) representatives (for CMRC) who none were up in the tower for this particular race including myself need to sit tomorrow morning to review this and see if we hold the race and or we just squash.”

Guyana's Mark Vieira found his Mazda beached on top of the tyre barriers

Championship leader David Summerbell Jr from Jamaica was visibly shaken afterwards and had to be stopped as he drove his Time Attack Mitsubishi Evolution down the wrong direction of the pit after the race.

jamaica's David Summerbell Jr

His mechanic raced to his aid and took over the driving duties. As I caught up with the shaking and sweating Summerbell he said “That was a really big mistake on BARL (Barbados Auto Racing League) and the organisers here, it ran too long and we ended up running in the dark. We couldn’t see it was very dangerous.” 

“I am still shaken but I am still glad that everyone has come out unscathed but let that be a lesson, you can’t make that mistake again and none of us in the Caribbean can ever let that happen.”

Long before the race had been started there were a number calls from drivers for a change in the schedule which would have allowed the CMRC races that included Group 2, motorcycles and the top modified classes to all move up the order in an effort to ensure they were completed as the feature races at the race meet.

But the schedule was kept and despite the many calls the last CMRC race had to wait as the light faded quickly in the eastern parish of Barbados.

It was well after 6 p.m. when the cars took to the track and veteran driver, Andrew King from Guyana, who has been coming to Barbados for many years said that the conditions were really bad and it was too dark to start a race.

“ I hope the organisers don’t take this to be a criticism, but had we as team Guyana or myself as I can’t really speak for the team, decided to not compete they would have seen us in a bad light as being spoil sports. So I made the decision to take part in the race,” said King.

“I was hit at the start of the race and if I was to ask the marshals who hit me I am sure they wouldn’t be able to tell me.”

In the end King decided to take himself out of the unsafe situation and back out of the high speed race roller coasters by returning to the pit.

“I made the decision very early to get out of the race.”

Visibility was so bad that if the race had been red flagged the only way the drivers would have been able to see it was if the marshals had stood dangerously close to the track with the speeding cars.

But it was not just the overseas drivers that had problems with it as Roger Mayers who won the first two races on the day  said afterwards while still wiping the sweat from his forehead, “that was madness with that night race.”

“That is the most dangerous thing I have done in my life.”

“The only thing that kept me able to know where I was, was the back firing from people’s exhaust helping to glow the track.”

His brother Barry Mayers was also of the same opinion, “A totally insane race and on the fifth or sixth lap when Roger slowed I thought the race had been red flagged so I slowed as well and I had just passed Mark Maloney and so he passed me again.”

However Summerbell was quick to say that he was surprised that BARL allowed to race to go on, “The stewards here are normally so strict with rules and safety is very important.

“Always coming to Barbados we know that they are sticklers for safety so I am completely surprised, I thought that race would have been cut very short maybe halfway… I was watching it and after maybe six laps I had my hand up out the window asking what has happened as I can not see and I am really not sure if I had missed a flag, have they red flagging it?”

“That must have been the biggest negative I have come across up here ever.”

“That goes against how BARL normally operates.”

Barbados Mark Maloney was of a different view, “It wasn’t as bad as you see from here but anymore laps and it would have been.”

He said he had fun in the race and said that “they ran the race late to start but the fact is that they ran the race and if you are in the race you have to do what you do with what you have.”

“We were all running in the same race, I don’t think my eyes were any better or any worse than anyone else.”

Barbados Stuart Williams walking through the pits at Dover Jamaica

Karting for all ages... Zane Maloney leads standings

Drivers waiting to be weighed on the scales with their karts

A sport for all ages.

That is how Go-Karting or just karting, can be summed up with drivers ranging from as young as seven years old to over 40 years of age.

One of the youngest in the form of Zane Maloney, moved his winning streak to four when he finished with a perfect record at the Barbados Karting Association’s 2011 Frutee Championship.

Zane Maloney on his way to victory

In the process he also took over the points lead in the 60cc Easy Kart standings. Since the start of the second season, Zane has been unstoppable and with his father Sean Maloney his pit manager, crew and teacher, he has continued to grow in the sport.

Events for karting are held at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit in St. Philip, and Karting is known as the grassroots of all or most of the other disciplines of motorsports.

One unique factor about karting at Bushy Park, is that there are no age limits and no driver’s licence required. Once a person can show control over the kart then they are eligible to participate.

Currently the majority of points scorers in the 2011 season are not of the legal age for a driver’s licence to operate a public or private motor vehicle on the public roads.

However many legal drivers would find it hard to keep up with these young speed racers.

When looking at an activity for your young son or daughter maybe karting can be an option.

Zane took over the points lead from Megan Gilkes who broke her wrist while competing in the Easy Kart World Championships in Italy. Megan was only ten years old at the time and was the lone Bajan representative during the Championships held on October 12-16, 2011.

However because of her injury she was forced to sit out the event and could do nothing to prevent Zane from taking over the overall lead as he has moved onto 809 points.

It is now almost assured that not only will Zane win the class but also the Driver’s Overall championship after a rule change has allowed all of the classes to be eligible for the title.

Before this year it was only the Premier 310 Yamaha class and the 125cc shifter class that were eligible for this title but a lack of competitors has forced the organisers to make the rule change.

However Megan has done enough to still place second in the class even if she does not score anymore points in the final event.

The defending champion driver is Christian Hinds and he currently leads the 310 Premier Class on a 749 points. 

Christian Hinds leading Sean Maloney

Hinds has been almost unstoppable on the track, but while the other drivers find it practically impossible to defeat him, mechanical gremlins are a sure way to sideline him. This was the case in the third round of the second season when a clutch failure ended his day at the midway point.

About 70 points adrift in the class is Temaine Forde Catwell , while the only driver over the age of 18 Owen Yarde is third in the standings on 589 points and it just going to show that age is not an advantage in this particular sport.

Raphael Russell who has only competed in four of the eight events is next in line with 339 points and is just happy to be able to overcome the countless mechanical problems during the year and get onto the track to drive.

Hoskin Worrell wins at Darcy Beckles Invitational Classic again

Hoskin Worrell (right) and Stephenson Belle during the Darcy Beckles Invitational Classic

There was no stopping Hoskin ‘Biscuit’ Worrell as he captured yet another title at the Darcy Beckles Classic over the weekend (October 29th 2011)

Competing at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, formerly the Sherbourne Conference Centre, a show down between Worrell and the reigning Barbados National Champion, Mr. Barbados Stephenson Belle ensure in a clash of the ripped and muscular.

The almost capacity crowd was loving it as well, screaming their encouragements from all corners of the floor as nine men took to the stage in a bid to win not only the title and bragging rights but also the $4000 in prize money for first place.

Belle who captured no less than two titles in Barbados and one at the CAC Bodybuilding championships in 2011, would have thought he was in with a good chance of stopping the train that is Worrell who was going in search of his fourth consecutive title at this Classic. As these two took to the stage, the other competitors seemingly faded into the back ground and their battle was for third place as it was clear Worrell and Belle were going to place one, two. The specific order was left up to the nine judges set with this difficult task.

Belle clearly had the edge on Worrell when it came to the legs, as even his gluts looked to be made of only muscles. He added two well-defined quadriceps, claves and hamstrings to complete the leg package.

Though Worrell also has well defined legs he conceded that Belle was clearly ahead in this category.

However Worrell who mentioned he was only 165lbs, came back strong with everything over the waist. The head judge, Errol Williams, who was from Antigua also mentioned it was a close contest between these two keen rivals and Worrell’s separation of muscles and conditioning showed as he flexed his way back into contention.

A chiselled back and stacked abdominals were only some of the pieces on display by Worrell and Belle in the battle for the title. Placed side by side by the judges as they called for certain poses they urged one another to be better and the crowd was loving with their screams of approval with each new pose.

In the end there can only be one winner and that was Worrell , who came with a total package on the night after what he described as eight weeks of sleepless nights and hard work. Worrell later said that he always knew he had the edge after he saw Belle warming up back stage and he noticed that Belle had lost some of his condition which he showed at previous shows.

Belle who placed second and won $2500 also won the Sydney Federick title for the best legs and $500 sponsored by Caribbean Logistics.

Third place went to Rene Griffith and with it $1100. Fourth place was Ricardo Bascombe and he collected $800, while fifth place was Owen Dottin, sixth place Ollyn Martin from Antigua, seventh Eustace Abraham from Guyana, eighth place Patrick Harris and ninth place Michael Riley all carried off hampers.

Patrick Harris who placed eighth in the Classic earlier won the men’s open and $2500. The top three in the Men’s open were given a berth in the Classic. Michael Riley was second in the Open and he collected $1500 and Anderson Bispham third and he collected $800.