JAMAICA’S five-man team will be aiming for another strong showing at the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) Amateur Members Association (AMA) World Championships, which begin in Madrid, Spain, today and run until Sunday.

Leading the team are Akino Lindsay and Richard Stone, two of Jamaica’s most decorated fighters, whose rivalry for gold medals has added another dimension to the competition.

Stone, who competes in the -85kg category and has nine ISKA AMA gold medals, is still chasing Lindsay, who has won 13 gold medals, including 12 individual titles and one team gold.

Stone moved closer to Lindsay at the 2024 World Championships in Vienna, Austria, where he won gold and silver, before adding gold and bronze at the 2025 championships in Brisbane, Australia.

Lindsay, who competes in the -90kg category, has won two gold medals at each of the last four championships, in Turkey in 2022, Munich, Germany, in 2023, Vienna in 2024 and Brisbane in 2025. His 13 gold medals include a team title won in Jamaica in 2018.

ISKA Jamaica President Jason McKay believes Lindsay’s continued success will make it difficult for Stone to catch him, although he expects the 33-year-old Stone to remain competitive.

“Stone is, undoubtedly, a great ISKA AMA fighter. Though he failed to win the semi- and light-contact double gold at the last two World Championships, at 33, he still has a lot of fight in him.

“However, Lindsay is 31, which means, even if he retires, Stone would have to continue for at least two years to catch up,” McKay said.

Stone, a medical doctor, won his first ISKA AMA gold medal in Hamburg in 2016. He went on to win double gold in 2018, 2019 and 2023, taking the top honours in both semi-contact (points) and light contact.

He missed the 2022 championships because of medical examinations but has won the -85kg semi-contact title at every championship he has contested, in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Stone and Lindsay will be joined in Madrid by Adrian Moore, Nicholai Reid and Sharic Bowen.

Although the team will be without Nicholas Dusard, its most internationally decorated fighter, McKay is confident Jamaica can improve on its medal tally from Brisbane, where the team won seven gold, three silver and one bronze.

ISKA Jamaica oversees kickboxing locally and supports several martial arts championships. It also manages the Jamaica combined martial arts team and sponsors the country’s annual participation in the International Sport Karate Association United States Open in Orlando, Florida, where fighters from various local martial arts organisations and high school teams compete.