Barbadian wrestlers look to dominate today

By Morissa Lindsay

Kcey Williams has just one thing on his mind and that is to win his category of the 2022 Barbados Beach Wrestling Open competition scheduled to take place today, on Brandons Beach against regional and world class wrestlers.

A former student of the Combermere School, Williams at age 20 is confident of putting on a good showing as he hopes to impress the national selectors and earn his place on the flight to Santa Marta, Colombia, where Barbados will be represented at the November 19 to 26 Central American and Caribbean Beach Games.

Coached by Sylvan Mascoll who is no stranger to combat sports in Barbados, the young Williams who will compete in the 90+kg tomorrow said while at Rascals of Barbados Restaurant and Bar yesterday that his preparation included lots of morning training from as early as 5:30 a.m. – sometimes on the beach – with Barbados Wrestling Association coaches and other local wrestlers.

Williams last wrestled a few years ago in the Barbados Olympic Association BiiG games held annually around November and since this will be his first time heading back out to competition, he has been focusing heavily on his breathing, being strong on his feet and keeping his core tight.

Williams has not fought against any of the overseas athletes from Canada, England, United States of America, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago who will be participating at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc Barbados Beach Wrestling event and therefore in addition to winning he is also hoping to gain some much-needed experience in the process.

Mascoll said the training process has not been easy but believes that the national athletes are ready to do battle.

“My role is coaching mainly at 5:30 on mornings so that is hard. The athletes have to get there on mornings and most of them work, so train, home, work or train, straight to work. Like myself too, get there at 5:30 and back to work. As it is four days we split, myself and Mrs. Payne (Yaima), we split the days in two, I take two and she takes two because each of us got responsibilities. If there are any problems we would call one another and change the days but I see our athletes doing good locally and internationally,” Mascoll said.

He added: “The first thing I work on is condition, I don’t mind seeing you losing but I don’t want to see you losing and breathing (heavily). I have one female and it is hard for her as the only female and right now training time is up and down for her because she now starts a new job and you know in Barbados work comes first, so it is hard for her honestly speaking. She did not get in as much time as I would like her to get in but I still feel she could do it because she got weight. In this sport, the heavier you are you have a better chance because they do not have that much weight.”

Given the magnitude of the event and its attraction to overseas competitors, Mascoll is of the view that it will be a great event which he plans to use in order to gauge where the national athletes are before they depart to participate in the highly anticipated Beach Games in Colombia.

“I would also use this for the competition next month in Colombia. So, I would gauge them from this event and see what we got to work on for next week,” Mascoll added.

There is no doubt that Barbadian wrestlers are in need of competition and Mascoll shared the same sentiments as Barbados Wrestling Association President Rollins Alleyne who highlighted this fact recently.

Mascoll said: “We need competition, don’t care how good you are in a club if you don’t have competition it is nothing. If we have competition as regularly as possible our athletes will go far but there is a lack of competition in
Barbados.”

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb