TALENTED eskrima champion Jacob Stewart has just picked up five medals for Great Britain at two world championship events.
The 16-year-old from Shelley took a medal in every event he entered – three silver and two bronze – at the stick fighting championships in Cebu in the Philippines.
It was a fantastic performance from the dyspraxia sufferer (a condition which affects co-ordination and speech), who has been competing in the Filipino martial art since he was seven and now has 48 medals in national and international competition – 21 first, 18 second and nine third places.
While in the Philippines, Jacob was invited to train with masters and grand masters in the sport, where competitors fight with 28-inch rattan sticks and all parts of the body above the knees are a target. The sticks can travel at speeds up to four times greater than that needed to break a bone.
Each day Jacob was either training or competing in eskrima – temperatures reached 38C – gaining experience alongside members of the GB team and the masters, who are developing the art on an ongoing basis.
This followed a gruelling eight-week training stint with Great Britain in Luton which ran alongside his summer term of Year 11 and studying for GCSEs. Now he’s back in the UK, he’s awaiting the results!
On the Eskrima front next year, Jacob will be looking to qualify to compete in the Europeans that have been proposed to be held in Spain and, once again, the task of seeking sponsorship to help fund him will begin.
His father Robert said: “He can not get funding through the lottery and it is hard to understand why businesses are so unwilling to support someone who has shown such personal determination to overcome difficulties and to achieve so much at such a young age.
“He has represented his country and consistently won medals for nine years, yet each year it is a struggle to get the funding he requires to continue to compete, which in 2009 will be around £2,000.”
