Bermuda’s sanshou fighters will return home with three medals from the NORCECA Wushu Tournament in Monterrey, Mexico, last weekend.

Sentwali Woolridge, Jermal Woolridge and Khalid Pitcher captured gold, silver and bronze respectively in their divisions.

Sentwali Woolridge, fighting in the 70-kilogram division, beat Mexican Ivan Cardenas two rounds to one to claim top honours, after falling behind early on in the contest.

Losing a technical first round, Woolridge won the second and third rounds convincingly to seal the win, using his superior striking ability to wear down his opponent in the latter stages.

He also overcame the high altitude and cold conditions in the open-side arena on his way to claiming the win.

“I felt like I had a slow start, but after coming back to the corner after the first round, Garon [Wilkinson, president of the Bermuda Sanshou Association] told me to turn it up and get aggressive,” Woolridge said.

“I was very confident in my conditioning and seeing my opponent getting tired boosted my confidence.”

Jermal Woolridge earned the silver medal after losing to Joshua Cordova, of Venezuela, two rounds to one.

In a rematch from the 2010 Pan American Wushu Championships in Argentina, Woolridge produced a better showing than the lopsided defeat he took that time around. “He [Jermal] showed great improvement, but it just was not enough to pull off the win,” Wilkinson said.

Also making a splash in Mexico was Pitcher, in the 176lb round-robin competition.

Wilkinson finished sixth in the gunshu (staff) and daoshu (broadsword) divisions, and eleventh in the changquan (long fist open hand) to cap a memorable tournament for the local contingent.

“This brings down the curtain on a great year for Bermuda wushu,” Wilkinson said.

“We have had successful tournaments in Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia and to cap the year off with three medals in Mexico is just icing on the cake.”