BY DAHALIA SMITH, NG Sports Reporter

An extreme weapons musical selection, by black belt Joshua Quartin from the U.S., was worth the ticket based on the standing ovation he was given for his performance at the 5th Island Karate Challenge, hosted by the Bahamas Society of Shotokan Stylist on the weekend at the Kendal Isaacs Gym.

In all, 30 competitors from six countries, namely, Haiti, U.S.A., Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and The Bahamas participated in the Challenge. The styles highlighted included kung fu, jujitsu and shotokan.

Quartin blew away the crowd as he took center stage (court) and masterfully twisted in the air and tumbled on the ground while maneuvering his Japanese weapon of choice, the Katana sword, at the same time. In the end, Quartin won the Best Overall Performance award.

"I got chills all the way down my back from the cheers and screams," noted Quartin.

"It felt really good and the cheers really made me happy. I was not expecting to get that kind of response at all. The excitement in the gym made me want to push even harder.

"The tourney was well organized. I have never been to a tournament like this where everything was a show.

I am accustomed to going to a competition with a show at the end. My future plans are to one day own a karate school."

This is Quartin's second time visiting The Bahamas. He was on vacation with his family the first time he visited.

Other results from the Challenge saw Julian Rolle, Jason Rolle and Delrick Carter place first, second and third, respectively, in the middle weight point fighting division.

In the lightweight fighting division, Antoinette Higgs was first, Kenton Rolle was second and third went to Darren Sears.

In the musical division, first went to Quartin out of the U.S., Kermit Miller was second and Ronald Martin was third.

In the weapons division, Miller was first, Higgs second and third was Julian Rolle. In the grappling division, first was Darren Sears, second went to Roland Martin and third was Kevin Lockhart.

In the self defense division, Julian Rolle won and Roland Martin was second.

Winston Penn won the senior kata division and the overall fighting division. In the open Kata division, first went to Lynden French, second was Kermit Miller and third was Delrick Carter.

In the heavyweight fighting division, Leo Valdvia from Nicaragua was first. Twins' Jamero Pierre and Jayara Pierre finished second and third, respectively, in this division.

Darren Sears won the continuous full contact division as he was the only competitor . Antoinette Higgs won the

full contact middle weight division.

In the traditional karate division, Romell Sands won, second went to Julian Rolle and third was Delroy Young.

The night ended with two grudge matches. The first one was between Clement Eneas and Jason Basden. Basden prevailed. The other was a master's kung fu face off between six-degree black belt and former Jamaican national kung fu champion, the 'Wounded Monkey' Paul Knight and Bahamian Leonard Major. This fight however was decided by the crowd and the result was a draw.

This is Knight's first visit to The Bahamas. He got his nickname 'Wounded Monkey' after overcoming a severe car accident 10 years ago. The doctors told him he would be able to walk again.

"This was a great showcase," said the 'Wounded Monkey'. "I want to thank the organizers for inviting so many international competitors. I love the international flavor of the event. We had a good time and we made a lot of martial arts friends."

Meanwhile Major said: "I usually train in Cuba and was challenged by Mr. Knight to come home and have a kung fu showdown. Now I have made a friend in Mr. Knight. It was an honor for me to go on stage with him as I heard so much about him."

Challenge organizer, Master Brian Backford, said afterwards: "The support was tremendous as we had both sides of the gym filled to capacity. I want to thank all those who came out. Everytime we host and event it gets bigger."