Eight com­peti­tors brought home 28 awards from the 2025 US Open Mar­tial Arts Cham­pi­onship, held in Or­lan­do, Flori­da.

The group, rang­ing in ages from nine to 38, was part of Pyra­mid Mar­tial Arts Acad­e­my. The three-day event be­gan on Ju­ly 17 and con­clud­ed two days af­ter, was the third con­sec­u­tive year that the acad­e­my par­tic­i­pat­ed and re­turned home with hand­ful of medals, tro­phies and oth­er awards.

The group was led by head coach­es Mas­ter Shane Dy­er and Savie Dy­er.

In a What­sApp in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, while in the US, Shane Dy­er said his team of eight com­peti­tors “de­liv­ered stel­lar per­for­mances” in clash spar­ring, con­tin­u­ous spar­ring, point spar­ring, and ka­ta.

The com­peti­tors, Dy­er said, com­pet­ed against some of the best mar­tial artists from around the world.

Nine-year-old Satyam Singh placed third in clash spar­ring, third in cre­ative ka­ta, and earned a fi­nal­ist medal in point spar­ring.

Sama­ra Rag­bir, 12, placed first in clash spar­ring, sec­ond in con­tin­u­ous spar­ring and earned a fi­nal­ist medal in point spar­ring.

An­oth­er 12-year-old was Zsen Dy­er, who placed sec­ond in clash spar­ring, sec­ond in con­tin­u­ous spar­ring and third in point spar­ring.

The old­est com­peti­tor was Saman­tha Sooka­many, 38, who placed third in clash spar­ring, third place in con­tin­u­ous spar­ring, and sec­ond place in point spar­ring. The sec­ond old­est was 36-year-old Jen­nelle Seu­radge, who placed first in clash spar­ring and con­tin­u­ous spar­ring and third place in point spar­ring.

Over­all, Pyra­mid Mar­tial Arts Acad­e­my earned four first place awards, nine sec­ond place awards, nine third place awards, and six fi­nal­ist medals.

Dy­er said he was, while he hoped for 27 tro­phies, he was ex­treme­ly proud of his com­peti­tors.

“These ath­letes gave their all. Every match, every ka­ta, every round—our stu­dents showed dis­ci­pline, fo­cus, and heart. To see them stand on in­ter­na­tion­al podi­ums, wav­ing the flag of Trinidad and To­ba­go, is a mo­ment of im­mense pride. And this is on­ly the be­gin­ning.”

Tak­ing time to plug his acad­e­my, he added: “Pyra­mid Mar­tial Arts Acad­e­my has so­lid­i­fied its place as one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s top mar­tial arts schools, prov­ing that con­sis­tent ded­i­ca­tion and strong men­tor­ship can take young ath­letes from the do­jo to the world stage.”

Oth­er win­ners

AJ Bal­go­b­in (Age 15)

Clash Spar­ring – 2nd Place

Con­tin­u­ous Spar­ring – Fi­nal­ist Medal

Point Spar­ring – 3rd Place

Team Point Spar­ring – 3rd Place

Sarvesh Ram­dass (Age 15)

Clash Spar­ring – 3rd Place

Con­tin­u­ous Spar­ring – Fi­nal­ist Medal

Point Spar­ring – Fi­nal­ist Medal

Team Point Spar­ring – 3rd Place

Nathan Dais­ley (Age 13)

Clash Spar­ring – 1st Place

Con­tin­u­ous Spar­ring – 2nd Place

Point Spar­ring – 3rd Place