CHAMPIONNATS DU MONDE DE SAVATE - ASSAUT

18th &19th May 2002

Loverval/Charleroi, BELGIUM

The GBSF team was:

Team Coach	Martin Ross
Team Official	Richard Muggeridge
Male Fighters	Liam Elliott
	Charlie Howes
	Tim Campbell
	Jon "Tuna" West
	John-Paul Sherley-Price
Female Fighters	Lorna Weaver
	Olivia Mitchell

From our reporter on the scene, Rossy:

Friday.
Finding the venue for this year's competition was the first problem, I travelled to the venue in Gerhard's (the German team coach) car along with the two Swedish fighters, we got lost twice and arrived much later than arranged. The "Spectrum" fighter's were already at the venue and were settled into the bar area, intermixing with the other teams. Weigh-ins began and so did the problems, velcro fixed gloves were banned, females were told that groin protection was obligatory; many teams including ours only had "velcro" gloves with them, tension was high. The official weigh in time 16.00 - 18.00 was being rigidly adhered to, at 17.30 not all teams had arrived, (including the French) the majority of our entrants had been weighed, we were still awaiting the arrival of the CAMA fighters and our "secret weapon" Lorna Weaver. With only minutes to spare everybody arrived and got weighed.

At 20.00 a meeting of head trainers from each delegation was held and the problems over gloves and protection was cleared up, velcro would be allowed, with masking tapes and female groin protection became optional. Having survived the initial expected hassles, things got better, we spent a few hours socialising over a meal before getting to bed in our 8-bedded dormitory.

Saturday
Breakfast was served at 07.00 and the first fights scheduled for 08.00, the GB team set up camp in the corner of the arena and inspected the "poules" to see who they would be fighting and when.
As there were six fight area's going consistently most fighters had three bouts spread out over the day. The high standards set by the opponents caused problems for most of our team with the majority of fighters gaining lots of experience but no wins.

John Paul Sherley-Price had one win by default - his American opponent fell and tore his Achilles tendon and had to receive hospital attention. Olivia Mitchell had two of her four bouts result in draws. Charlie Howes had an excellent win and demonstrated perfect assaut, commented upon by many other team trainers.

The referee's had too much to do during the bouts and seemed to allow more "contact" than I have ever seen in any "Assaut" competition. There were two actual knockouts during the first day, which was alarming for a "controlled" contact competition. All of our GBSF fighters fought well and observed all the rules, the level of contact was a surprise for most of our fighters and they all had their bruises to show off.

After showering and eating our team returned to the arena to see who was fighting on Sunday, we didn't expect any of our team to go through and had planned a night of beer and socialising, just as well we checked the lists, John Paul had got through to the quarter finals and had another two fights arranged, early night for him whilst the rest of the team enjoyed a well earned drink.

Sunday
The team all rose early and arrived at the venue to cheer on our lone gladiator. John's first bout was against an incredibly large and well conditioned Mauritius fighter that had put fear into the hearts of all his prior victims. John managed to loose, but by a "split" decision, his second bout was against a tough, seasoned Italian fighter which again he lost by a "split" decision. The fighter from Mauritius went on to win the heavyweight category and is now the World Champion.

All of our team's bouts over, we became spectators and were fully entertained by some extremely closely fought battles in both semi and finals bouts. The standard of Savate shown throughout the competition was very good and all our team members gained a true insight into what can be achieved.

After the closing ceremonies and prize giving had been completed the Belgian Federation hosted a Bar-B-Cue evening that was a great chance to chat and make new contacts around the globe. The GBSF team were excellent sportsmen and women and flew the flag for Savate in our country well; we also managed to consume more beer than any other team!

I would like to thank all team members for all their hard work and training with a particular mention for Richard Muggeridge, who was a complete star, this was his first time as an international referee and he carried out the job admirably. Our 2002 team were a credit to their trainers and country, many thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of the event, vive la Savate.

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