The 2nd Wako Oceania Open Championships took place from the 16th to the 18th March in Melbourne’s iconic Melbourne Exhibition Centre, as part of the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival. It was a success, with almost 40,000 people watching the great sports and martial arts on display.

This year WAKO hosted both Mat Sports and Ring sport events, K1, Full Contact, Kick Light, Light Contact and Point fighting as well as Musical Forms. The fighters came from Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Slovenia, UK, Austria, and Italy. Lots of excitement arose the high level K1, with over 40 bouts in the ring and 70 K1 fighters participating.

Tatami Sport also demonstrated to have risen to a very high level, with almost 150 competitors from 5 countries, highlighted by Team GB’s members Jacob Sabanskis winning Point fighting against Austria’s Domi Holbling, and Leasha Morrison taking out New Zealand for the Ladies Grand Champion division.
Standing out results came from Marjan Bolhar, who won Kick Light Veteran as well as the Adult division, beating a very internationally experienced Igor Kim from VRMA New Zealand in the final of -79 kg.
Tahlia O’Connell from Sydney’s Kenpo Freestyle made a standout performance, winning both -55 kg older cadets Kick Light and Light Contact divisions. Tara Phillips from Martial Energy Sydney won all mat sport fighting disciplines in the -65 kg 13-15 year old Girls. Levi Smith, trained by Oceania President Peter Thompson, showed extremely impressive skills winning Junior Kick Light and gaining Silver in Light contact and Bronze in Point fighting.

In the Musical Forms divisions we saw the victory of Martial Energy’s students Arias Vang and Holly Saunders, with Arias getting special recognition and performing for Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, finishing his form with a fist pump that made Arnie smile.
In the ring we had memorable performances from Juniors; Tylisha Turner took out top ranked Junior Brook Cooper in older Females -60 kg and will make her presence known in Italy this year at the Junior World Championships.
New Zealand’s Michael King took his second K1 title in 2 years, showing dominance over his Australian opponent in -63.5 kg.

A very high level fight in -81 kg took place between Hussain Al-Mansouri and Joshua Day, with Hussain taking a narrow hard fought victory.
Impressive results from Shuriken NZ team taking home 4 belts back to Auckland made Coach and NZ National Ring Coach Jason Vorster very happy with his teams performance, stating he will be back next year with a larger and stronger team.
Overall the ring standard was of an extremely high standard; onlookers cheered in excitement at the fast actioned pace of these Kickboxer’s.
Australia President Francis McArdle and Oceania Continental President Peter Thompson were both very pleased with the event, the referees and organizing committee’s efforts. Both stated that this was the most successful event to date in WAKO Kickboxing, with fair play, high standards of competition and superb athletic performances.