Bowen eyes double gold at kickboxing World Champs

Armed with his first-ever international gold medal, semi-contact, -65kg, won last year in Brisbane, Australia, lightweight Sharic Bowen returns to the International Sport Kickboxing Associations Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Championships with sights set on double gold in Madrid, Spain.

Departing the island November 3 as part of a five-man Jamaica combined martial arts team led by multi-ISKA AMA champions Akino Lindsay and Richard Stone, plus Nicholai Reid and Adrian Moore, Bowen is prepared to face more European fighters at the November 5-8 tournament.

“In Brisbane, I fought mainly Australians and a couple people from the United States. I wasn’t in the bracket that had Europeans,” noted 24-year-old Bowen, who got his first taste of ISKA AMA fighting as a 16-year-old junior in 2018 when the tatami (mat) events were held at the Montego Bay Conference Centre.

European fighters, Bowen pointed out, use bulldozing tactics early, hoping to overwhelm opponents.

“Lightweights are usually far more technical than the bigger guys, especially speed. However, Europeans are more like bulldozers. Fighting them over the years, you understand their weaknesses. The key is to try maintaining your composure, pick your points, and be better on the day.”

Admittedly a fighter who did not enjoy a glittering junior career, Bowen has steadily improved since winning ISKA AMA silver and bronze as a junior in Montego Bay 2018.

“As a senior, I won two ISKA AMA bronze in Austria 2024. I won my first senior gold at the New York Taekwondo Open last September, which qualified me for Brisbane at which I won my first ISKA AMA World Championship gold,” he explained.

Bowen won semi-contact gold, -65kg, and bronze in light contact after being forced out of the semi-final with an injury.

“I bring a little more experience than last year. I am trying to keep healthy and maintain my fitness. By doing so, I hope it will help me to secure double gold this time,” Bowen reasoned.

“Training has been going well. I believe I am peaking at the right time. Compared to last year, I am a little calmer, having got gold out of the way. I now have a better understanding of what to do, having worked on certain weaknesses, giving me more confidence going into this World Championship,” he added.

A product of the McKay Security High School Taekwondo programme and junior combined martial arts team, Bowen is on the path of the road travelled by teammates he first saw, with mouth agape, as a first-former at Jamaica College in 2015.

“When I got on the junior combined team, I started travelling and won my first gold at a tournament in New Jersey in 2019,” he recalled of his years being teammates with fellow Jamaica College student Justin Brown, Calabar’s Tye McKay, and the St George’s College pair of Ryan Robinson and Duncan Smith.