BENDIGO’S James Plowright will be aiming to stick fight his way to world championship glory later this month, just like he did in 2014.
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Plowright will compete at the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation Multi Style Stick Fighting World Championships in the Philippines from July 20 to 24.
The 27-year-old will contest the 18-39 super heavyweight (100kg-plus) division in three different disciplines – single stick, double stick and staff.
Plowright – who took up the martial art in 2013 – is the defending world champion in the staff discipline, which utilises a longer stick.
“I was doing another martial art – kung fu – which was good, but there wasn’t any weapons training as part of it,” Plowright said on Wednesday.
“My trainer at the time put me on to Glen Eden, who started teaching me stick fighting and I progressed from there.”
And he progressed quickly, as his 2014 World Championships staff victory in Hungary attests, with Plowright’s sights now set on more success.
“I’ve been training fairly hard, so I’m looking forward to competing again,” Plowright said.
“I really enjoy the contest of stick fighting. There’s a lot of skill involved and time and effort going into it.”
The World Championships are held every two years, with this year to be the 14th edition and featuring more than 500 stick fighters from over 30 countries.
Each fight will be over three one-minute rounds, or extend to a fourth round if scores are equal, with scoring similar to boxing.
Plowright trains on a Saturday morning with instructor Glen Eden at the Park Road Hall at the Tom Flood Sports Centre, while he also completes five to six fitness sessions a week.
Eden is confident Plowright will again equip himself well at the World Championships.
“James is certainly on track to do Bendigo and Australia proud again,” Eden said.
“He has been training at our Bendigo school for three years now and has come a long way from having no experience at all to competing at a very high level… he has taken to it like a duck to water.
“He has all the right attributes with good dedication and hard work.”
Plowright will be one of two of Eden’s students competing at the World Championships.
Shawn Butters – who won bronze in the double stick heavyweight division in 2014 – will also be competing in the over-40s division in all three disciplines as well.
Anyone interested in more information on stick fighting can contact Eden on 0413 284 610.
