NEW AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION: pictured is Cootamundra teenager Ben Filmer who recently competed in the Australian Sanda Championships held in Melbourne recently. Ben won his fight to claim the gold medal.
COOTAMUNDRA has an Australian Champion in its midst with teenage Ben Filmer winning the under 17s title at the National Championships held in Melbourne recently.
Fresh from his appearance at the world championships in Turkey, Ben overcame a slightly older opponent to come away with the gold medal.
He said his experience at the international tournament helped him in his preparation for the Australian titles.
“I still had a lot of knowledge of what I had learnt in the lead up to the International Championships and I was also able to take a lot out of my loss in Turkey,” he said.
“I worked a lot on my take downs as well as my kick catches. I had training sessions about twice a week so I was more than ready when the time came.”
Sanda or Sanshou combines full-contact kickboxing, which include close range and rapid successive punches and kicks, with wrestling, takedowns, throws, sweeps, kick catches, and in some competitions, even elbow and knee strikes.
With only two people in his division, Ben was guaranteed either first or second position at the championships.
He won the first round before going down in the second only to come back in the third and clinch the title.
Ben revealed it was a pep talk from Australian coach Shihan Rob Williams which inspired his third round effort.
“I was a little tired in the second round which is why I didn’t do as well but before the third round, Shihan Rob had a bit of a talk with me which psyched me up a bit,” he said.
“It definitely helped.”
Ben is aiming to be a part of the Australian team which will fly to Jakarta for next years world championships.
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