WAKO BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2007
Harvey Haden Sports Centre, Nottingham
Saturday 17th February 2007

The WAKO British Championships has long been considered the premier open mat tournament to win for Semi Contact, Forms, Light Continuous and Ring Full Contact for many years now.
Many established WAKO champions from the past have gone on to the professional ranks right up to Professional World level and have become some of the most well known names in the sport.
The 2007 two day event would deal with Light Continuous on the mats and Full Contact in the ring on the Saturday and Semi Contact and forms on the mat on the Sunday. With record entries this years event was looking to be the busiest yet and was going to be a very high level of competition
With this in mind it was time for USKA after many years not attending the event to throw their hat back into the mix and see if they could re-establish themselves and pick up some British Championship medals.
We had four USKA fighters deciding to compete in the Light Continuous in Mark Sedgwick, Reiss Larvin, Jake Richards and Nadeem Mohammed and one entrant in the Full Contact Qasim Nisar.

13 year old Mark Sedgwick was first up in the under 16 years old -42kg category.
Mark already a well established mat and ring fighter weighed in at only 37kg but despite this had to be considered one of the favourites in the division because of the fact he has never lost a fight either in the ring or on the mats in all his years in the sport.
Mark battled through four rounds of tough competition beating all the competition in fine style to lift the first Gold for the USKA team. A great WAKO debut and one that further enhanced the Killer Kickers reputation to a wider audience. Mark will hope to be a dominant force at the WAKO championships for years to come.

Next up we were treated to Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar's next full contact fight less than a week after he won the ISKA British Amateaur title against previously unbeaten Irish Sean Comisky.
Qasim in a straight final of the Cadets -63.5kg divison would face teak tough Scottish fighter Ian Macdiarmid. It has to be said not used to fighting on a day shows and having to wait around to be called to the ring took it's toll on Qasim and his timing felt off as he did his warm up on the pads. The fight started and straight away both lads tried to establish their authority with Qasim getting the better of the argument catching Ian high on the top of his head with a round kick that buckled his legs. Ian fought through the trouble and mannaged to get through the round. The second round again saw Qasim dominant again but failing to land the telling blow that would cause an early finish. The third and final round had Ian in all sorts of trouble shipping heavy punishment from Qasim for the best part but to his credit not falling under the onslaught. The final bell rings and Qasim has to settle for a unanimous points decision win. Although having his opponent in trouble in both the first and last round of the bout Ian Macdiarmid proves the fact that the Scotish do not go down easily.
So another USKA gold and a great start to the day for the team.


'Relentless' Reiss Larvin time now in the under 16 years old -69kg category. Reiss in the draw had received a bye in the first round meaning that he had automatic entry to the quarter finals of the competition. On being called for the quarters his second round opponent fails to turn up again giving Reiss a straight passage to the semi's. Had Reiss's reputation preceded him with no one wanting to face him or was it just a coincidence????
An ever ready Scottish fighter stepped up in the semi final to take on the challenge and in a tough fight that took Reiss a while to warm up with it being the first fight of his day managed to impose himself forcing many area warnings and leaving the decision beyond any kind of doubt. Ironically even though Reiss had scored well throughout and the Scottish fighter had received many area warnings, point deductions and even was on the verge of being disqualified the judges only managed to give the win to Reiss via majority decision.
Oh well, a wins a win and it was now onto the final to face a PKA fighter that had been fighting well all day and seemed to be the favourite to win the Championship.
Reiss no respector of reputations forced the action and dominated the bout bloodying his mans nose and basically beating the fight out of him. Reiss's physical strength is one of his greatest assets and those that have not felt it before are in for a real shock.
A good final but one that had only one winner. The win to Relentless Reiss and a third Gold medal in quick succession to the USKA crew.

Nadeem Mohammed was up against the odds in the Mens -71kg division. Not only had Nadeem only just moved up from junior competition but he had also never seen let alone competed in a mat based competition.
Nevertheless Nadeem equipped himself well winning his first fight against a heavier more experienced competitor only to lose out in the second round to a tae kwon do stylist in a close fought bout. Nadeem with this baptism by fire to this type of tournament will know what to expect next time and i'm sure will make the adjustments needed to adapt and win

Finally for the USKA crew we had Jake 'Rattlesnake' Richards also just stepping up into the senior division attempting what looked like the impossible contesting the Mens -63kg division at 16 years old and weighing just 59kg.
Jake has the style to give anyone trouble but was it a bridge to far in his very first senior competition to fight the very best in the country in this type of tournament?
The first fight did not suggest this with Jake looking every bit at home in this class beating his opponent convincingly. His second bout of the day was against an opponent who looked in his mid 20's and looked like he was right on the weight limit of the -63kg division.
Jake had to take some serious shots in this bout but went through the fire to dish out some of his own fire power to eventually wear down and outpoint his man. Jake's fitness is one of his greatest assets and you can guarantee that he will be the last man standing in the fitness stakes.
Jake's third fight of the day seen him take on a leggy tae kwon do fighter. Jake used pressure tactics to close down his legs and despite severally cutting his lip well outlanded his man to convincingly earn himself his place in the final.
Another tae kwon do fighter in the final now and by coincidence it was the older and more experienced brother of his semi final opponent. The tae kwon do fighter had made light work of his opponents in the preliminary rounds keeping them away with his dangerous legs and looked like he was going to be a handful and a big obstacle for Jake in the final.
Jake knew the tactics he needed to apply and it was just a matter of if he could or not close his opponent down as he had done to his brother in the fight previous.
Jake fought like a demon, making the tae kwon do lad miss with his kicks and then drilling him with fast punch flurries and cutting the kick in from close quarter.
The tae kwon do was struggling to keep his ground and was run off the area by Jake on a regular basis. Jake's workrate was also giving him trouble and fighting at an uncomfortable pace was taking its toll with him looking very very tired as the fight went on.
The final bell left everyone in no doubt who the victor was and amazingly Jake had done the impossible and won the Senior British title.
No doubt fighter of the day and a forth gold medal for the USKA team.

An excellent day for the USKA crew, one of the best in fact. Four gold medals at this level of competition is an amazing achievment especially given that it was the first time all four of the gold medal winner had never fought in these divisions before.

They will be back next year attempting to win the titles again and next year they willl be even stronger. Watch out! USKA are back in the building.

Well done guys, USKA salute you!

To see highlights of the USKA teams performance at the WAKO British please click the link below

CLICK HERE