Six Territorians bring home 12 medals at stick fighting champs

Darwin is home to four new world champions. Fighting the world’s best martial artists, the NT team struck gold in the Philippines. Read how they went below.

Louise Sayson and his team of world-class fighters finally have the “right” colour medals to add to a champion collection.

Having defeated the best in the sport, the six Darwin based athletes cleaned up at the 2023 WEKAF Stick Fighting World Championships.

Held in the Philippines, the team won six gold medals, with four members being crowned world champions.

“We represent club Darwin and Australia when we compete,” 53-year-old Sayson said.

“At this year’s champs – a biannual event – there were roughly 470 contestants including us.

“So we were fighting the world’s best.”

FIGHTERS

Louie Sayson (2x silver, 2x bronze)

Matthew Kelly (gold, bronze)

John Tarce (2x gold)

David Oelrich (2x gold)

Michael Dale (gold, silver)

Jino Falsis (4th)

Team Darwin at the 2023 WEKAF Stick Fighting World Championships in Hipodromo, Cebu the Philippines, August, 2023. Picture: Contributed.

Originally introduced to the art in the 1990s during his time in Alice Springs, the eighth-dan black-belt said he has received a personal invitation from stick fighting HQ for his and his dojo to represent the nation.

“I attended my first world championships back in 1994,” he said.

“I was introduced by a fellow martial artist back in Alice Springs, and I was taught by world-class fighters back then.

“The HQ sends me an invitation each world championships so my school and myself don’t actually have to qualify.”

Along with the other fighters, Darwin came home with 12 medals from the competition, a hefty haul for such a small number of fighters.

“In 1994 we started our involvement and we used to always bring home medals but they were the wrong colour, now they’re the right one,” Sayson said.

“We’ve come a long way since the start but we’ve always been competitive and it’s awesome to be winning so many gold medals.”

Sayson explained stick fighting had its roots in 1500s Philippines combat and is an all-encompassing martial art.

“The martial art not only uses weapons but everything,” he said.

“It involves barehanded combat, striking, self defence, and close and long-range fighting.

“There are old boys that said to me once, that MMA stuff, we’ve been doing that for hundreds of years.

“It was actually just recently named the national sport of the country and now every school has stick fighting as part of their curriculum.”