BY AINSLEY WALTERS, Freelance Writer
SEIDO JAMAICA IS, beyond doubt, a dominant force in Seido Karate worldwide.
Countless medals plus Betty Salmon's feat of being the only woman to have won Seido world championships in three regions are astounding.
In addition, Jamaica Combined Martial Arts team members, Bruce McFarlane and Omar Rose, have also shone as Seido martial artists.
McFarlane has won at every international Seido championship entered and has been a defending champion from South Africa 2004.
McFarlane and Rose were among four Jamaican black belts who contributed maximum points to their allotted international teams at the last championships held in New York.
Explaining Seido's regional world championships format, chief instructor Kyoshi Tony Robinson pointed out that tournaments are held annually in different countries.
"We have a world championship almost every year," he said.
"We recently went to New York, last year it was Britain and in 2004 we went to South Africa."
Even though the championship eventually crowns a Grand Champion, for the first year team events were mixed in New York with representation being from all participating countries.
"Rose, Salmon, McFarlane and Enid Plummer did Jamaica proud by winning maximum points for their teams," said Robinson, a fifth degree black belt.
"McFarlane was the male black belt heavyweight winner. Rose won the male black belt middleweight, Plummer took the women's black belt heavyweight and Salmon the black belt lightweight," he added.
"Our team really did very well, even the green belts. Richard Austin got most points of any person in the male green belt division and Rashawn McLean also got top points."
Seido Jamaica is actually 30 years old and is one of the first member countries.
Jamaica's dominance is nothing new. McFarlane's father, George McFarlane, won at New York World Championships more than 20 years ago and retired unbeaten in Seido tournaments.
Seido's influence on the local martial arts scene is highly visible.
McFarlane and Rose are pivotal members of Jamaica's Combined Martial Arts Team and even though its captain, Jason McKay, is not a Seido member, he credits Kyoshi Robinson as the person who first introduced martial arts to him as an alternative to weapons in his business of enforcement security.
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