Despite battling nerves, a bloody nose and a big fighter from Bosnia earlier this month, Davidson’s James Morrison overcame the difficulties facing him and emerged a Canadian gold medalist.
James, 14, won gold in the hand form of kata as well as a bronze medal in the continuous sparring competition at the 2013 World Martial Arts Games held Sept. 4 to 9 at Schendlinger Hall in Bregenz, Austria as a member of the Canadian National Martial Arts team. The annual tournament brought together over 500 of the top martial artists from 17 countries to compete in various events from kickboxing to karate and kung fu to numerous others.
“I got pretty nervous a lot of the time,” said James, who represented the Sagayo School of Martial Arts at the Games “It was a big tournament. There were lots of countries there and lots of kids there. It was a really good experience (and) I met a lot of nice people who are also part of Team Canada.”
James said the competition at the Games was “pretty intense” as most of the martial artists there had been practising their sport for a long time and displayed many different styles that he has never seen before. He said winning gold in kata among these competitors was a great feeling, but getting bronze in continuous sparring was extra special.
“I’ve never actually done continuous sparring before,” he said. “I got a nosebleed at the beginning of it and you get really tired because you have to go get as many points as you can in two minutes. Then I was going up against a fairly big guy for the first time. He was a brown belt too (and) he was older. I don’t know how old he was, but probably about 16.”
After patching up the nosebleed caused by a punch from the big Bosnian, James stepped back onto the mat to finish off the two-round fight. He said the adrenaline was flowing, so he wasn’t really frightened and that helped him better his opponent and take home his second medal.
In order to make it to Austria for the tournament, James held a fund-raising drive earlier this summer to try and make the $2,825 that was needed for the trip. He said the drive was a success as he was able to collect enough donations to hit the target and wants to thank everyone who helped him by donating funds.
James said the 2014 World Martial Arts Games are being held in Richmond, B.C., and his plan is to once again represent Canada at the tournament and hopefully win another medal or two.