The Bermuda Sanshou Association has sent a nine-strong team to compete at the Bridgetown Burning Martial Arts Festival in Barbados this weekend.

Krista Dyer will captain the team who are making their third consecutive appearance at the competition and will include junior athletes for the second straight year. Nathaniel Thomas, 9, who won a gold medal at the Sanda Kicks and Licks tournament in Barbados last May, will look to retain his title, while fellow team-mates Matai Phipps, 12, and Shaela Bailey, 11, strive to improve on their performances from last year.

Szaine Williams and Dominique Wilson, both aged 12, make up the remainder of the junior team, who will compete in a round-robin or knockout tournament format in the junior category.

Dyer, who claimed gold at the Pan American Wushu Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last November, will face Sarah Carswell, of the United States, in a three-round kick-boxing contest.

Carswell stepped in at the eleventh hour after Dyer’s initial opponent Ashley Keith, of Canada, pulled out because of injuries she sustained in a car accident.

Ryley Mason, who also clinched gold in Buenos Aires, will make her senior debut on her eighteenth birthday against Chevreuil Johana, of Martinique, in a kick-boxing bout.

Quennel Robinson will hope to go one better than his silver-medal performance last year as he takes on Barbados’ Ronaldo Stuart. Talia Iris, a former sanda fighter, will compete in karate and tai chi forms and weapons in addition to working as a referee for the kick-boxing and sanda bouts.

Oscar Lightbourne, the BSA technical director, will serve as chief arbitrator for the event. Garon Wilkinson and Sentwali Woolridge have also travelled as the coaches. The majority of the Bermuda team will also compete in a beach wrestling event on Long Beach tomorrow.