US Open: Jamaica’s Martial Arts Team Celebrates 20 Years of Global Success

Jamaica’s combined martial arts team is celebrating its 20th anniversary at the 2026 International Sports Karate Association’s United States Open. This milestone marks two meaningful decades in local martial arts history,beginning with Shawn Cummings‘ two gold medals in 2006. Keith Edwards and Jason McKay also secured gold in two-man team-fighting that year.

“I am very pleased with the performance of the squad and the production,” said mckay, founder of the unit, which began as the Busta Fighters in 2006. “I am notably pleased with the performances of Richard Stone and Nicholas Dusard. It has been 19 years as we have been attending this championship and look forward to our 20th anniversary.”

Jamaica established dominance in the Caribbean before competing at the 2006 US Open, achieving an away victory against the United States in Febuary.

McKay’s vision of assembling Jamaica’s best martial artists to compete globally has fostered talent that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. “Winning 29 medals in 2025, four from the combined team, 30-odd year-olds, most of whom were barely teenagers then, but now winners of world titles at various championships – including olympian Kenneth Edwards and Nicholas Dussard, an 18-year-old International Taekwondo Federation Pan-Am Championships senior gold medal winner – shows how the US Open has helped to inspire and mould the greatest martial artists to have emerged from Jamaica,” McKay explained.

The COVID-19 pandemic considerably impacted the team, disrupting the McKay Security High School program that produced stars like Ackeem Lawrence, Akino Lindsay, Richard Stone, and Oshane Murray. Before the pandemic, the team also developed world championship-winning female fighters such as Sheckema Cunningham and Subrina richards.

“We missed the US Open in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. We tried a small squad in 2022 and 2023, literally missed 2024 as of Hurricane Beryl when the kids, the future, were just returning,” McKay stated.

“To have gone through all that, a whole generation lost to the pandemic, attention diverted elsewhere, imagine what the medal count would have been at the weekend,” McKay emphasized, referencing Jamaica’s record-breaking year in 2019 when the island secured 54 medals-19 gold, 15 silver, and 20 bronze-at the world’s largest martial arts open.

The US Open served as a crucial platform for the combined team to refine its skills, initiating a streak of 53 unbeaten team matches. This success began with the Busta Gold Cup and continued through the Continental World Championships, where they challenged top international teams in continuous fighting, including England and New Zealand.