Furquan takes a low blow and loses at Junior Worlds

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22: It was a literal kick to the pants that sapped the life out of Samir Furquan at the Junior World Wushu Championships in China.

Samir Furqan lost his opening round match when Turkey’s Mustafa Korkusuz beat him 2 to 0 in the men's 56kg division.

According to head coach Garon Wilkinson, Furquan, 18, and a student at Cedarbridge Academy fought a very close first round which surprisingly went in favour of the Turkish fighter. He said Furqan caught a kick to the groin in the second round that appeared to cause his pace to fade. In international san shou rules fighters are only given 10 seconds to recover from a kick to the groin area. In addition to this the 10 seconds is only awarded if clearly requested by the fighter.

Wilkinson said: “Samir fought extremely well. In fact this was by far his best performance to date. We knew that Turkey was going to be a tough opponent however we were disappointed not to win the first round.

“Both Sentwali (Woolridge) and I felt that he was the dominant fighter and scored more points. It was unfortunate that he caught the kick to the groin in the second round. He just his lost his spark after that kick. At the end of the day we are extremely pleased with his performance.

“The level of fighting at this world junior level is unbelievable. It is sometimes hard to believe that these athletes are between the ages of 15 and 18. It is also great to see countries experiencing political unrest such as Iran, Egypt. Syria, China and Japan taking part and putting their differences aside for the love of wushu.

Furqan is due to fight again on October 13 as part of the undercard at the All or Nothing  WBC and WBA Middleweight Championship fight Teresa Perozzi will take on American Tori Nelson.

Woolridge is also fighting and will be featured as one of the main events when he takes on Canada's Dan Kechego.