Dusard the template for martial arts success

NICHOLAS DUSARD has been the template on which the second generation of Jamaica’s successful combined martial arts team was built to dominate tatami (mat) events at the International Sport Kickboxing Association Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Championships since 2015.

Akino LIndsay, Richard Stone, Adrian Moore, Oshane Murray, Ackeem Lawrence, Nicholai Reid, not to mention female fighters such as Sheckema Cunnngham and Dusard’s own cousin, Subrina Richards, were all inspired to ISKA AMA World Championship titles by the 35-year-old, who showed at July’s United States Open that, pound for pound, he is still one of the world’s best martial artists.

Denied a double gold at the US Open after injuring himself while performing a spectacular reverse turning kick knockout of his opponent in the semifinals of continuous sparring, Dusard returns to familiar stamping grounds of ISKA AMA mats as part of Jamaica’s six-man squad in Brisbane, Australia, October 15-19.

Fit and raring to go, Dusard’s martial arts’ awards sheet reads like an encyclopaedia, having won more US Open gold medals than any other fighter in the history of the tournament held annually in Orlando, Florida.

Rated by coach Jason McKay, along with Lindsay and Stone, as “undoubtedly, the best ISKA AMA tatami kickboxers in the world”, Dusard won points-sparring gold in Vienna 2024 and double-gold, points and continuous sparring, in Munich, Germany, 2023.

A two-time Night of Champions winner, the former Wolmer’s Boys’ School scholar and 2006 Prime Minister’s Youth Award winner for Excellence in Sports, created local martial arts history by winning Jamaica’s first-ever ITF senior gold medal as an 18-year-old at the Pan-Am Championships in Brazil.

With his lightweight and middleweight days long behind him, Dusard takes the mat as a light heavyweight in Brisbane, aiming for double gold, which he had also completed in Ireland 2019 as part of a team which won five gold, a silver and a bronze.

– A.W.