Ainsley Walters, Freelance Writer
Members of the United States International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) team, which will face Jamaica in Connecticut this weekend, pose with ITF president, Master Tran Trieu Quan, at last year's World Championships in Quebec, Canada. - Contributed
Marcello Cancelliere, the United States' International Taek-wondo Federation's (ITF) secretary-general and coach of the USA team to face Jamaica this Saturday in Connecticut, yesterday said the hosts have been training relentlessly for their season-opener against the Busta Fighters.
Cancelliere, who oversaw the USA's terrific medal haul in 17 Events at the 2007 ITF World Championship in Quebec, Canada, has three members from that squad lined-up to face Jamaica this weekend.
Carlos Resende, a two-time national USA champion, will captain the homesters, who are hoping to end Jamaica's three-year domination at the big Connecticut tournament.
"He was a bronze medallist at the last world champs in Canada as a heavyweight in men's sparring and also competed in previous championships in Germany and Canada," Cancelliere pointed out.
Other American national team members, who medalled in Quebec and are down to face the Jason McKay-captained Jamaicans, include John McLaughlin and Patrick Pires.
"McLaughlin is a junior national champion, who brought home a gold and two bronze from Canada as an hyperweight," the US coach explained.
McLaughlin, from all indications, is a powerful fellow, having won gold in speciality breaking and a bronze in team sparring.
Pires, a former junior national champ, also took a gold and two bronze from Canada last year.
US team members
The other American team members are Jamal Ali and Ilyas Mirzayev, upcoming Philadelphia fighters.
"Our preparation consists of four to five days of training including Sundays," said Cancelliere, adding that he has been observing Jamaica for quite a while and will not be taking the Busta Fighters lightly.
"We have been running, lifting and sparring for two to three hours for the past three months. We are using this as our first fight before travelling internationally to compete in the ITF World Cup in Italy in October," he pointed out.
"We are using this Connecticut tournament as a tune-up to start our year, which will also include an even bigger Philadelphia tournament with 500 to 600 competitors, at which we would also love to have Jamaica.
"I was a competitor at the World Championships in 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2007 and also national coach in 2005. I have been watching Jamaica and for a small country they have good competitors in sparring and speciality techniques.
"I had the opportunity to observe, in Canada, one of their heavyweights who did not win but gave his German opponent a good fight," Cancelliere added, referring to Kenneth Edwards, who was on the bad end of close decisions in Quebec.
Cancelliere obviously did his homework on the Busta Fighters.
"The Jamaican team is very strong and flexible with good lead legs," he pointed out.
"They use their front leg very well and are very persistent. We saw them in Atlantic City last year and they did very well. We look forward to having good matches with them as they like to spar and are very feisty," he added.
This tournament will have approximately 300 competitors with national champions from the USA's east coast.
Jamaica, in a bid for a fourth straight win, are set to field Arthur Barrows, Bruce McFarlane, Kenneth Edwards, Nicholas Dussard, Omar Rose, Dwayne Brown, Alrick Wanliss and captain McKay.
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