Rishi Ra­goonath

The African drums rolled with the chants, set­ting the hype for the hun­dreds of sup­port­ers that filled the Ma­yaro Bas­ket­ball Court on Fri­day night. The crowd wit­nessed 22 of the coun­try's best stick fight­ers who bat­tled to se­cure a spot in the se­mi-fi­nal rounds of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (NCC) Stick Fight­ing Com­pe­ti­tion.

The 12 fight­ers who will move to the semi­fi­nal round on Wednes­day at the Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex are Roan­na By­naille, Roger San­m­bury, Don­ald Lewis, Daniel Bar­clay, An­tho­ny Coop­er, Mark Quashie, Saleem Mo­hammed, Sel­wyn John, Keer­an Ram­sawar, Oniel Odle, Ronald Lewis, and Evon Ralph.

By­naille, the on­ly fe­male in the com­pe­ti­tion, opened the bat­tle against Ralph. Odle and San­m­bury had the sup­port of the crowd, while Mo­hammed and Ram­sawar put on a fear­less fight.

Chair­man of Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (NCC) Win­ston Gyp­sy Pe­ters, who opened the com­pe­ti­tion said, "I was born and raised in Ma­yaro and as a child of Ma­yaro, I re­mem­ber stick fight­ing as a rite of pas­sage to man­hood, it was for the brave, it was for the tal­ent­ed, and it was for the skil­ful, and I do be­lieve that the same trait ap­plies to­day." He com­mend­ed the par­tic­i­pants.

Al­so ad­dress­ing the crowd was MP for Ma­yaro Rush­ton Paray who said events like these were crit­i­cal for tourism and small busi­ness­es in the area.

Anderson Marcano and Donald Lewis battle in the gayelle during the preliminary round of the National Carnival Committee Stick Fighting Competition.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Daniel Barclay, left, blocks a bois from Burton Trotman in the gayelle on Friday.

RISHI RAGOONATH