It took less than a minute for Rio Claro Gayelle's Selwyn John to defeat New Town's Keegan Taylor to retain the King of the Rock title at the National Stick Fighting Competition finals on Tuesday night.
Throwing ferocious blows, 26-year-old John of Libertville drew first blood as his prized bois encountered Taylor's lip in his first strike, causing the large Skinner Park, San Fernando, crowd to go into a frenzy.
John's team also crushed their main contender, the Valiant Brothers', Donald Lewis, to retain the Kings of the Gayelle title for the second consecutive year.
Lewis danced around the ring for most of the five minutes but when the drums stopped, signalling the end of the duel, the ring masters found blood on Lewis' forehead.
Speaking about his victories, John said: "If you don't have the aim positive in your mind and you go out there, you can get hurt. So when you go out there, the game has one rule: If you can't brakes, don't play."
Asked about his strategy, he said: "It's the speed of me. The 'buy-in' and the 'repeater.' The 'repeater' is what is important."
There was contention among fighters over some of the ring masters' decisions as the Talparo Gayelle almost forfeited the King of the Rock competition, aggrieved over Moses Ralph's loss to Valiant Brothers O'Neil Odel.
When Ralph's son Evon was called to the ring for his bout, he stood in the back of the drummers and refused to fight. Instead, an intoxicated Damian Pollard showed up and slipped while firing wild blows at Longdenville's Anthony Byneille.
Barely able to stand up, Pollard kept falling, leading to the medics having to attend to him in the ring. Even as he was being carried off, he tried to wiggle out of the medics arms, sending the audience into loud laughter.
Prize money too small
Before the competition started, National Carnival Commission (NCC) deputy chairman Don Sylvester announced that the prize for Kings of the Gayelle would be increased from $30,000 to $40,000 while second and third prizes would remain at $18,000 and $12,000 respectively. The King of the Rock winning was also increased from $15,000 to $20,000.
But for John, he felt the prize money was too small.
"For the games that we are fighting, the money is very small. It can be better than that but it is in me. I like the game and that is why I am here tonight," John said.
Douglas: I appreciate the danger?
Arts and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas said he appreciated the danger faced by fighters and prefered to keep the competition in its traditional form.
Over the years, fighters have lost eyes and suffered severe injuries. Not only the fighters were in danger during the contest, as photographers at the ringside and patrons found themselves ducking from loose bois.
Douglas said: "Sometimes we are quick to want to expand things but sometimes the way things are in a traditional form, it is the best way they are suppose to be. I think that will have to be done very carefully to make sure it retains the authenticity.
"Of course we can put head gears on them, gloves, make a nice stage but you have to really decide if you want to do those kinds of things or whether you want to keep it in its traditional art form.
"It is what it is and I kind of appreciate the danger and the willingness of man to go into the ring. I certainly will not be there in the ring."
Sylvester said it was NCC's intention to expose stick fighting to the world and would host competitions and workshops year-round.
"We will conduct competitions right through the year from after tonight so that we can choose people to go to the States (US), Europe, London, Africa, China and all over the world.
"Bois is what we want, bois is what we will have, bois is what the world will have," Sylvester said.?