Ainsley Walters, Staff Reporter
Nicholas Dussard - Contributed
NICHOLAS DUSSARD is on the verge of joining the likes of Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell, Gillian Russell and Michael McDonald as junior world beaters.
The 16-year-old Wolmer's High fifth-former come September, leaves the island on July 12, highly touted to strike gold at the International Tae Kwon Do Federation's (ITF) Junior World Championship in Honduras.
Dussard, a highly-decorated junior martial artist, has already been recognised nationally, lauded with the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Sports last year.
He further intends to bask himself in glory later this month and has been training almost every day to fulfil the expectations of the local martial arts community.
"It's the biggest junior championship in the world but I expect to win the gold medal," said the confident youngster, who, far beyond his years, has been competing unbeaten regionally and internationally as a member of the Jamaica Combined Martial Arts Team since October last year.
"I've been training hard with the combined national team and also individually by myself," he said.
"What should give me the edge is my stamina. We've been doing a lot of strength work, cardiovascular stuff, a lot of running to build stamina.
"On Sundays, I run 18 100-metre sprints at the University of the West Indies field. We do this twice on Sundays, in the mornings and afternoons, with the Combined Team.
"The team normally does 18 sprints but because of my preparations I sprint an extra 800 metres, twice around the field," he explained.
Dussard intends to compete in patterns and sparring. Patterns is a set of pre-arranged techniques performed before judges.
"For that section I'm expecting to do well but my main event is sparring," he said. "People call this fighting. I expect to win that. We work on sparring mostly as a team. That's what we do in the Combined Team, sparring techniques four days per week."
It's a rigorous schedule for Dussard, who balances training with schoolwork and hanging with friends.
"I train every day," he said. "On Tuesdays and Thursdays it's 9:00-10:00 p.m. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 7:00-9:00 p.m. Saturdays it's 9:00-10:00 a.m. and Sundays we train from 5 a.m. until whenever and again at 5:00 p.m. till whenever it ends."
FOCUSED
A focused teen, Dussard has been balancing academics and martial arts since age nine.
"I used to watch the Power Rangers and that inspired me," he said.
"My mother wanted me to improve in school and said if I got my grades up, she would allow me to start martial arts.
"I started spending more time thinking about school and my level of performance improved drastically," he added.
"From there, she asked around, checking different schools and found Tae Kwon Do. I've been doing it ever since."
In addition to the 2005 Prime Minister's Award for Sports Excellence in Sports, Dussard is also a world bronze medallist in sparring and patterns at the 2004 Tae Kwon Do World Cup in Orlando, Florida.
In that same year, 2004, Dussard was a double Pan-Am Gold medallist in sparring and patterns in Paraguay.
As part of his preparations, the 16-year-old martial arts star will be attending an international seminar this weekend in Mandeville.
Hosted by two ITF Masters, who will also be active at the Junior World Championship, Dussard expects to pick up valuable tips.
"I've spoken to my instructor and he told me one of the masters, Wilem Bos, is very good at sparring, one of the greatest ever.
"The other master, Hector Marano is a technical person. At the seminar, I hope to work on both aspects, patterns and sparring," he said.
Dussard's chances, considering he has been fighting much older opponents, appear great.
"Most of the people I've fought, especially at the World Cup, were two years older and are not likely to be in the World Junior Champs," he explained.
"In sparring, my main concern would be the Poles and the Argentineans.
"I've been looking at stats from the senior world champs and they seem to be the countries dominating.
"There will be a large South American contingent and Argentina will be dangerous," he said, summing up his opponents.
Meanwhile, it will be non-stop hard work for the teenager, who is hoping his sparring sessions will pay off.
"The Combined Team has the best fighters in the island and we spar a lot," he explained.
"When I see how well I do against the likes of Kenneth Edwards, Arthur Barrows, scoring on them and stopping them from scoring.
"They've fought all over the world and haven't lost. Training with them is a real confidence booster," he added.
