ADRIAN Moore, who successfully returned from a five-year hiatus at last year’s International Sport Karate Association’s US Open, joined a select band of fighters at the 2026 tournament, winning the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) World Championship gold on the featured Night of Victory at the Coronado Resort in Orlando, Florida, on Friday.

Moore, 35, won middleweight gold on his 2025 return, having last competed at the US Open in 2019, winning continuous-sparring gold as part of Jamaica’s record-breaking year of 19 gold, 15 silver and 20 bronze medals at the world’s biggest martial arts open.

Moore almost never made it to Orlando. After having to rush back into Kingston, overnight, from Thursday’s cancelled Montego Bay flight, Moore boarded at 6 a.m. at the Norman Manley International Airport, a connecting flight to Miami from where he arrived in Orlando two hours before his bout against Gabriel Dearmas of the United States.

His victory, decided by the centre ref after a 2-2 tie, put him among two-time winners Richard Stone, Nicholas Dusard and Ackeem Lawrence as well as Kennneth Edwards, Sheckema Cunningham and Alrick Wanliss as US Open ITF World Championship winners.

“They rushed me to the hotel. I changed and warmed up for showtime. I was tired and exhausted but I still won. It was a race against time,” said Moore, who had lost his previous US Open ITF World Championship bid to Ireland’s Keat Hongloi in 2017.

“I was very anxious about reaching. After that, my mind changed to just gearing up for the fight. He is younger, 21, very technical, fast and tricky. He was faster and technical. The advantage I had was experience and i was stronger. It was very close,” said Moore, who won a gold and silver at last year’s US Open.

“I want to go to Madrid, Spain, for the International Sport Kickboxing Association Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Champs in November,” Moore added.

Moore was the first graduate of the McKay Security Jamaica Taekwon-do Association’s High School League to captain Jamaica’s combined martial arts team which went unbeaten for 53 international matches in team fighting, extending their record from ITF championships to their foray into the ISKA AMA World Championships.

Moore was one of four Jamaicans to first fight at the ISKA AMA World Championships, in the Netherlands in 2012, among a trio of bronze-medal winners, Jason McKay and Dussard, topped by Oshane Murray, who won the country’s first gold at the tournament.

In 2018, Moore fought alongside Dusard, Kenneth Edwards, Akino Lindsay and Ackeem Lawrence to lift the ISKA AMA World Championships team-fighting gold at home, cheered on by supporters inside the Montego Bay Convention Centre.