---

Bermuda's full-contact mixed martial arts fighters are in Canada this weekend to take on the world's best.

Seven san shou fighters are competing in the World Wushu Championships at the impressively named Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, starting tomorrow.

It is the second time Bermuda has sent a team to the world championships and Garon Wilkinson, president of the san shou association and one of the fighters, admitted they were facing a gruelling challenge.

He said it would be an 'extraordinary achievement' for any of the seven fighters to come out with a podium finish in the championships which features 1,500 athletes from 85 different countries.

The team, five of whom had strong performances in the Legends of Kung Fu tournament in Texas recently, has gone through months of preparation to prepare themselves, physically and mentally, for the unique challenges posed by the brutal, full-contact fighting style.

"The world championships bring out the 'who's who' in the sport of san shou. This is the absolute highest standard of competition in our sport and all of our training is geared towards performing well in this competition," said Wilkinson.

He said the 'luck of the draw' would determine how far the Bermuda athletes went in the elimination competition.

But heavyweight Jermal Woolridge, who finished fifth at the last world championships in Beijing two years ago, the experienced Sentwali Woolridge and Wilkinson himself are expected to be the island's strongest contenders.

Big things are also expected of Bermuda's lone female fighter Talia Iris.

Wilkinson, who was part of the team in Beijing, said they had modified and improved their training methods since the last competition. "I feel that we are far better equipped than we were two years ago.

"I had the opportunity to train with one of the top U.S. san shou fighters in the 90's earlier this year and I have had a chance to implement some of his training methods into our own training. "We also have had access to more sparring partners with some of the fighters from Skipper Ingham's gym that are taking part in the WAKO World Kickboxing Championships in Austria taking part in a number of our sparring sessions."

[[In-content Ad]]

---