Moore eyes double gold

ADRIAN Moore has medalled at three consecutive international martial arts tournaments since returning from a five-year hiatus at last year’s International Sport Karate Association’s US Open at which he won gold and silver at the Coronado Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Moore successfully returned to the US Open this year, joining a select band of fighters who have won the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) World Championship gold on the tournament’s Night of Victory.

However, Moore, one of four Jamaicans to first fight at an International Sport Kickboxing Association Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Championships, Holland 2012, has a score to settle in Madrid, Spain, November 5-7.

Moore, Jason McKay and Nicholas Dusard left Holland with bronze medals whereas Oshane Murray won the country’s first gold at the tournament Jamaica would go on to dominate in latter years through fighters such as Akino Lindsay, Richard Stone, Sheckema Cunningham and Subrina Richards.

Last October, Moore won double silver at the ISKA AMA World Championships in Brisbane, Australia.

“I have an ISKA AMA gold from team-fighting, 2018, when the tournament was held in Jamaica,” Moore pointed out, reminiscing on a team which included Dusard, Kenneth Edwards, Akino LIndsay and Ackeem Lawrence, lifting the ISKA AMA World Championships team-fighting trophy at home, cheered on by supporters inside the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

“I not only want individual gold, I want to upgrade to double gold this year,” said Moore, who, after July’s US Open Night of Victory triumph in Orlando, had immediately set sights on Madrid.

“Night of Victory was the foundation, which I have used as a stepping stone for Spain.

“Master Claude Chin has been drilling us in sparring to survive the rounds whereas Mr McKay has us doing a lot of long-distance running and strength work for this championship,” Moore revealed.

Moore, who had lost his previous US Open ITF World Championship bid to Ireland’s Keat Hongloi in 2017, said, though he was off the international scene for five years, his experience as a senior fighter has been invaluable.

“I have been facing younger fighters since my return but my experience has allowed me to overcome their youthfulness,’ said Moore, the first graduate of the McKay Security Jamaica Taekwon-do Association’s High School League to captain Jamaica’s combined martial arts team, which went unbeaten for 53 international matches in team-fighting.