Kaelin Cox bounced back from a knee injury in fine style at the inaugural Bermuda Open Wushu Championships.

The Bermuda captain secured gold medals in the Adult Open Arm and Adult Weapons taolu disciplines as well as silver in the Advanced Men sanda event at Whitney Institute Middle School on Saturday.

“I am impressed with my performance being that I have been injured,” Cox told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s not ideal performing my taolu [set routine] on lei tai [elevated mat] but we don’t have a Wushu mat at the moment so I had to perform talou on the lei tai, which was OK.”

Cox, who injured his knee in preparation for the Wushu Pan American Championships in California in September, pipped Bermuda team-mate Talia Iris for the Adult Open Arm title on a tie-break and Adult Weapons crown by 0.01 of a point.

“Me and Talia had a good battle in Open Arm and Weapons and it was very close in both of them,” Cox said.

“It’s always good friendly competition between us. It was a good showing on her part and well-deserved points.”

Cox was also thrilled to see some of his students achieve success at the championships.

“I am pleased with my students and they did amazing,” he said. “They exceeded my expectations and there is only more to come in the future.

“Overall it was a good day of wushu, a good tournament at Whitney and I am pleased with my athletes, the coaches, judges and everybody who participated.”

Among the most closely fought events were the 15-17 Female Novice and 7-9 Female sanda matches that went beyond the scheduled three rounds.

Ayesha Akbar secured the gold medal in the Adult Female Novice event after seeing off rival Tierney Gibbons in an extra fourth round, while Khushi Chatura Suresh prevailed against Yara Robinson in the 7-9 Female event, which also required an extra round to determine the winner.

Muryah Swan and Tristan Robinson were the remaining athletes claiming two titles.

Swan secured the gold medal in the 13-16 Female Advanced sanda and 13-16 taolu events, while Robinson reigned supreme in the 6-9 Male sanda and 9-10 taolu events.

Cole Durham (Advanced Men), Reyel Bowen (Advanced Men Single Bout), Yu’idai Trott (10-13 Mixed), Jacob Goodwin (10-13 Single Bouts), Michael Tristan Burgess (12-16 Male Advanced), Shaun Richards (Novice-Intermediate Men), Hasini Chatura Suresh (15-17 Female Novice) and Ari Edness (9-11 Single Bout) were the remaining winners in the sanda division.

Also claiming a gold medal in taolu was Yara Robinson (6-8) to go with the silver medal earned in the 7-9 Female Sanda event.

Garon Wilkinson, the Bermuda Sanshou Association president, hailed the championships as an overwhelming success.

“It was a fantastic event with really well contested competition,” he said.

“We had a total of 31 athletes; 18 sanda athletes, seven taolu athletes and six athletes that competed in a combination of sanda and taolu.

“I was pleased with all of the performances and there was not one that I had any real disappointment in. To call any particular athlete would be unfair because we had so many really good performances.

“I was really pleased with everyone and that includes our judges and officials who did an amazing job.”