Champion boisman Selwyn John copped the King of the Rock title in an exciting stick-fighting finals taking home a $20,000 first prize.
As the chantuelle sang, “Mama when ah dead bury me,” blood oozed from the head of John as he crossed bois with Omawale Daniel on Wednesday night.
Despite being knocked out in the very first round of the National Stick Fighting finals, where he suffered a deep gash to his forehead, the 28-year-old fighter from the Rio Claro Gayelle showed mammoth determination in battering Daniel to capture this year’s King of the Rock title.
John won the competition in 2014 and 2015.
Like gladiators battling in the coliseum of Skinner Park, San Fernando, the massive audience revelled in the beating of the African drums that evoked a spirit that had them yearning for blood that signalled the stickfighters demise.
Daniel, of the Charuma Gayelle, eased his way into the finals when he walloped a dazed Jeremy Lawrence.
But when it came to the final bout of the night, both men threw violent blows that threatened to break bois made from the toughest of poui branches. It was the technique of close quarters combat that saw John claiming victory.
After the five and half minute bout expired, Daniel was left grimacing from a swollen hand and called on medics to apply numbing spray.
As John pumped his fist in the air, his Rio Claro Gayelle posse erupted into boisterous celebrations.
“I know I’m a Spartan warrior,” John told reporters after his victory.
“Once my two hands are good, they would have to be aware of me...Two of my partners got touched tonight in the gayelle against gayelle but with my instinct, I knew they had to be aware of me in the King of Rock and you all saw it for yourselves tonight.”
Despite an increase in prize money, John said given the seriousness and the risks involved in the indigenous artform, it should be more.
John also won two Caribbean Airline tickets.
John recovered from an earlier clobbering in under two minutes by St Mary’s Gayelle’s Roger Sambury in the first bout of the Kings of the Gayelle competition.
Sambury, who himself inflicted one of four severe “buss heads” on the night, was left nursing nasty slashes to the head in the final bout.Despite blood streaming down his neck, he was adjudged winner after Valiant Brothers’ champion boisman O’Neil Odel was disqualified for striking a floored opponent. It took 11 seconds and a brawny strike across the head that had Sambury sprawling to the ground and losing his bois in the process. However, Odel struck Sambury a second time.
It would not be stick fighting without bacchanal and confusion as Odel vented his disapproval to an administrator, quoting Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin’s stick fighting tribute, Buss Head, “Yuh stink and dutty.” Sambury, who debuted in this year’s competition, said he believed the ringmasters were right to disqualify Odel. He said he had slipped because of water in the ring.
“How I fell on the ground with no stick in my hand, if it were me and my opponent fell, I would have never hit him. I would have left him to get up and come again. I want good stick fighting, not to have the advantage on the ground,” Sambury said.
Police also had to eject a patron who “cuss out” a teenage girl in the stands. The competition was brought to a halt when the girl walked into the outer ring crying, telling the ringmaster that she was afraid of the man. While this year’s stick fighting finals had one of the largest crowds in recent years, better crowd control was needed from the Regional Carnival Committee (RCC) as the outer ring was packed with spectators who blocked the view of those seated and the cameras. Fire officials complained several times that the emergency exits from the rings needed to be cleared.
RCC chairman Lennox Toussaint said the turnout was a result of work done to promote the tradition over the years. He said a lot of young people were getting interested in stick fighting, guaranteeing its survival.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people push for the buss head, but stick fighting is so much more than the buss head. If you listen to some of the stick fighting chants, they are simply beautiful,” Toussaint said.
He said the soca, Buss Head, would have also added interest in stick fighting.
After congratulating John, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat said the stick fighting tradition was strong in the Rio Claro community.
Rambharat said he would love to see the finals being hosted there in 2018. However, he said more safety measures need to be implemented to make it more attractive to young people. He said the prize money was increased this year because there was a realisation of how difficult stick fighting was and the skill and dedication needed to be a boisman.
The St Mary’s Gayelle took away $35,000 while runners up Valiant Brothers and the Rio Claro Gayelle won $20,000 and $15,000 respectively.
