The Gold Coast played host to a truly historic occasion with the staging of the first ever World All Styles Organisation (WASO) Asia Pacific Championships.
Some of Australia and the world’s best competitors battled it out for top honours in a world class tournament.

Russia and Palestine joined Australia for the opening ceremony of the NAS/WASO weekend. As the competitors lined up, hosts Jim and Virginia Casey welcomed all visitors and presented them with Australia’s gift of goodwill and friendship, a koala.

With the weigh-in on Friday and the competition commencing Saturday, the international visitors had a chance to watch the Australians in the NAS Nationals, study the competition, relax and plan for the next day’s competition.

Just after 1pm on Saturday, the day everybody had been waiting for, the WASO tournament officially began. WASO founder and director, Silvio Morelli, addressed the audience: “Fifteen years ago my dream was to have a truly all styles competition. We started with 120 to 130 competitors,” he said. “Now we have over 8,000 competitors with 40 tournaments annually and over 30 international competitors here today.”

After the bow-in the first of many competitions began. First up was the men’s black belt open forms and the women’s black belt open forms. Vanessa Cook (Vic) at just 19 years old and a Kung Fu exponent of four years, was first to perform in the Women’s Open Forms. Even though she did not place in the WASO she had this to say about it: “I’ve worked hard in the NAS from novice to intermediate and now WASO gives me the chance to compete on an international scale at black belt level. It’s just great to be here.”
As the competition intensified in the Women’s Black Belt Open Forms, the three winners emerged: Pania Casey (Qld) first, Ellen Gatt (NSW) second and Tracey Fitzgerald (SA) third.

The competition continued in the Men’s Black Belt Open Forms. There were over thirty of the world’s best competitors, each doing the best they could until the competition was finally won by Ino Maquiring, with Tom Curtis (Vic) second and Hayden Thompson (Qld) third.

With the forms over in the Men’s Black Belt Open, the point sparring began and it soon showed just how hard the competition was, setting the pace for the rest of the day.

As our Russian friends found out, Australians are tough! “I have been in martial arts for 17 years. I am the UK/Italy champion and have placed in many world tournaments,” said Gregoriev Yevgenig through the Russian interpreter, Alexandra Kravets. “But this is one of the hardest I have been in. I like full contact but as you get older this is better.”

The Men’s Black Belt Open Point Sparring continued throughout the afternoon with over thirty competitors fighting for a place in Sunday’s finals. Finally, Scott Thompson (Vic) finished in third place with John Feretzanis (Vic) and Alex Pereda (NSW) to contest the finals.
In the Women’s Open Point Sparring, Kylie Parkyn (Vic) came third with Erin Forest and Linda Murphy, two Victorians, battling for first and second on Sunday.

The action continued throughout the day with winners and losers alike feeling the heat.

The contest in the Women’s Continuous Weight Divisions was as hot as the Queensland weather.

Queensland’s Linda Nikerlla took third place leaving Lauren Fabre (Qld) and Roseanne Colin-Thome (NSW) to fight it out for first place in the under 55kg division.

The Russian contenders were accustomed to full-contact sparring and it showed. Twice Sercurt Jourkov was warned for excessive contact in the preliminary rounds of the Men’s Advanced Under 70kg Continuous.

Language is always an obstacle in any international competition, but when it came to the WASO sparring everybody knew what the Russians were talking about.

The two Russians, Sercurt Jourkov and Eugei Grigoriev, placed first and second with third place going to Russia’s Virulline Ruscan from Russia.

At 6pm on Saturday the tournament was approaching the final bouts. One of the last fights was between Khaled Amer of Palestine and Victoria’s Scott Thompson in the Men’s Advanced Over 78kg Continuous.

Khaled had been the Palestine champion since 1990 and was the 1990 Asia open weight champion. On this occasion he took third place but vowed to return next year to take the title.

On Sunday, November 30, the time had come for the best competitors to come forward. It was time to decide who would be the first batch of WASO champions.

The finals began with an Aikido demonstration by Jothan Bu Aikido. Thirty minutes of breathtaking falls and throws, repelling constant attacks with weapons of all descriptions. The action was hard and fast and a tribute to the talents of Jothan Bu and his students.

The first contests were the Women’s Continuous Divisions. The under 55kg is between Roseanne Colin-Thome (NSW) and Lauren Fabre (Qld). The punches were hard and fast and the kicks strong. Contact was made but the two women battled on. Two minutes of intense competition took place before it was left for the judges to decide the winner. Roseanne took the honours, and in doing so became the first WASO champion.

The Women’s Mid-Weight division was taken out by Leah Fitzpatrick from SA with Leanne Spencer in second place.

It was Russia against Russia in the Men’s Advanced Under 70kg Continuous. Tempers ran high as the Russians battled hard to take the coveted trophy. Eventually Sercurt Jourkov emerged the champion with Eugeri Grigoriev in second place.

In the next round NSW’s Alex Pereda faced the fierce Russian, Surgey Astahov. Straight up the Russian let fly with a spinning back kick which, if it had landed, would have knocked Alex out. Alex replied with a succession of lightning fast punches but it wasn’t enough to stop Surgey from taking first place.

With sixteen rounds in all to be contested the day moved at a cracking pace. The final competition of the day was the Team Points Sparring, Australia vs Russia. The Russian team consisted of: Ostahov Sergei, Joukov Sergei, Yarullin Ruslan, Gregoriev Yergenia and Vilkov Alexander, with Minnigaleev Viuer and Vilkov Dmitri in reserve.

The Australian team, guided by Tom Curtis, was: Jason Couzner (SA), Des Murphy (Vic), Vince Sheehan (NSW), Noel McBride (Vic), David Price (Vic) and Matthew Couzner (NSW).

All hope looked lost for the locals as Russia took a 2-0 lead and looked to be dominating the third round. However, the Aussies staged a magnificent comeback, pulled the score back to 2-2 and then made a breakthrough to win the trophy in stunning fashion.

With the competitions over, Jim and Virginia Casey, Queensland directors of the NAS and this year’s hosts, thanked all the officials, judges, referees and businesses who supported the first WASO tournament.

The tournament was directed by Silvio Morelli (NAS National Director), Vince Busuttil (NAS Assistant National Director) and John Reid (Technical Director).

It was a spectacular two day event and we all look forward to this year’s event to be staged in Melbourne.