‘I think my chances are very high’

COMBAT SAMBO is not one of the sports that make headlines in Jamaica, but Matthew Colquhoun, who is set to become the island’s first representative in the sport at the World Games, said he is on a mission.

Already boasting four gold, two silver, and two bronze medals at the Pan American level, Colquhoun, who is dubbed ‘Gold Lion’, will hunt a medal at the World Games set for Chengdu, China, from August 7-17, with sambo combat athletes competing on the 13th and 14th.

He qualified for the World Games by winning a gold in the 88kg Combat Sambo Tournament in Brazil in August last year, and his expectations for the games are high.

“My expectations for this World Championships is to just go out there and do my best. I have done all the preparations I need, so I am just going to go out there and show Jamaica and the rest of the world what Jamaican athletes can do, not just in track and field, football and netball — the more popular sports — but also show them that there can be other channels for young athletes to also pursue athletic achievements by competing in sambo and reaching a stage like this,” he said.

The possibility of him earning a medal is very likely, according to Colquhoun.

“I think my chances are very high to be able to placed on the podium, whether it be gold medal, silver or bronze. I believe I have done enough, I have enough experience, I’ve prepared for this tournament very well, so I am very confident in going out there and doing the best I can, so hopefully to land me on the podium,” he said.

However, just making it on the global stage makes him happy.

“It really makes me feel happy, proud, being the first Jamaican to compete in the World Games, to represent my country at the high level. Just proud to see all my training and my sacrifices that I did is paying off,” he said.

With combat sambo being fairly new to him as well, he said he is proud of how far he has come.

“I got involved in sambo in 2018 when I competed in a mixed martial arts event in Trinidad, where it was introduced by a former coach of mine, Robert McCarty, who had gotten involved in sambo in Trinidad; and he recommended starting a sambo sports federation in Jamaica to grow the sport, and that’s how I got involved. We went to my first Pan American Games in 2019 in Trinidad, where I got gold,” he said.

He also has the hope that the sport will become more well known and practised in Jamaica, and suggested a few steps that can be taken to grow the sport locally.

“I believe for the sport, sambo, to grow more in Jamaica, [it] is really to get more support from the local government and more support in the media. If we can get more people to know about the sport, it is a very young sport, it has recently been accepted in the Olympics. So I believe if we can get the local government to boost the sport, where it is added to programmes in the schools, creating tournaments and national championships; where we can develop athletes from the grassroots, so that we can compete internationally at these big events,” he said.

The 31-year-old believes the sport can give opportunities to Jamaican athletes.

“I am from a community off Washington Boulevard called New Haven. This community is a very tough one, didn’t have a lot of opportunities. It is troubled with violence and there are a lot of negative things you can get involved in; and martial arts and sambo has given me the opportunity as a young individual to get involved in a sport, give me the exposure to travel to see different places and develop a skill that I can also give back to Jamaica and my community. Hopefully, other people will see where I came from and what sports has done to elevate me out of my community and bring me to a World Championships like this. I believe the sport can help other inner-city youth,” he said.