Bermuda captain Kaelin Cox will be among the top contenders when the inaugural Bermuda Open Wushu Championships takes centre stage at Whitney Institute Middle School Hall today.

Organised by Bermuda Sanshou Association, the event will feature 30 athletes from age 7 to over 50 compeinge in the sanda and taolu disciplines.

Garon Wilkinson, the BSA president, is looking forward to a day of exciting competition.

“The public can look forward to seeing athletes that make up our national team, including the likes of Kaelin Cox and Talia Iris from our senior team as well as a number of novice athletes that will be performing for the first time,” he told The Royal Gazette. “The athletes are taking this very seriously and have been in practice for a number of weeks now.

“We are excited to see our athletes perform on home soil. As you know, BSA are very active on the international scene, so this is an opportunity for folks who have never competed on a lei tai, our fighting platform, an opportunity to compete under circumstances that may not be as daunting as participating in a fight night or overseas at large events.”

The BSA was awarded a lei tai — elevated fighting arena without railings — through the International Wushu Federation Solidarity Programme many years ago which will be set up for the third time, and the second time for an official competition.

“It's great from that aspect that we are making use of the equipment that was provided for us,” Wilkinson added.

“The reason we were provided this equipment is because Bermuda was seen as one of the developing nations in Wushu, and in order for us to continue to improve on our programme we were provided this lei tai by the International Wushu Federation.”

All events will be officiated by certified judges.

“From a judging aspect, we have our regionally qualified judges running the sanda or kickboxing portion of the event and very seasoned kung fu practitioners and Chinese martial arts practitioners who will be judging the taolu events,” Wilkinson said.

The BSA hopes to stage the event annually going forward.

“We do intend to make this an annual event and would like to see our participation grow year on year,” Wilkinson added. “We have 30 participants this year and we definitely like to see it double for next year.

“We hope to gain interest from the public from our programmes, so I urge parents who are interested in getting their children involved in wushu or even adults to come out and have a look and see what we have to offer.

“We anticipate the event going into late afternoon. We have food and refreshments for sale so it should be an all day enjoyable event.”

The action gets under way at 10am.