National coach and longtime wrestler Yaima Payne is a few days away from creating history as the first female master to represent Barbados in beach wrestling when she competes at the 2021 United States of America Open Masters Beach Wrestling in Jacksonville, Florida.
Prior to her departure this weekend for the major event, the trailblazing Payne, who is also a mat wrestler, said it was an honour to be given this opportunity.
“I feel very proud to represent Barbados as the first female wrestler at these big international masters’ events in beach wrestling,” Payne told Barbados TODAY.
Payne who is part of the Barbados Wrestling Association (BWA) will feature in the women’s 78kg category against other competitors from the USA and Europe when the four-day event commences Thursday, May 20th at One Ocean Resort and Spa.
The USA Open Masters is a qualifier for the World Beach Ranking Series with the first stop being July, 2021 in France. Therefore, Payne will be hoping to acquire sufficient ranking points in an effort to qualify.
The Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) continues to play its part and have sponsored this trip for Payne.
It is expected that while in attendance, Payne will seek to engage the organisers of the USA masters open event to discuss the Pan American Beach Wrestling Championship in Barbados. Also the possibility of athletes travelling to Barbados for the annual Barbados Independence Invitational Games (BiiG) beach games. These are normally held later in the year but were cancelled last year because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
With wrestling being a contact sport, Payne was unable to train with a partner as much as she would have liked but is extremely confident of doing well. She is also hoping that her participation in this competition would inspire young females particularly those in Barbados to recognise they can achieve through sports if they apply themselves and work hard enough.
Payne’s journey as a female wrestler began at age nine in her native Cuba during a time when female wrestling was not globally recognised. That did not stop her from fulfilling her dreams and today she has a baccalaureate in Sports Culture from the Cuba Sports University in Camaguey.
A representative for the United World Wrestling Americas for women’s wrestling in the English-speaking Caribbean, every year Payne participates in the Wrestling Women Global Forums located all around the world. In 2020 she also started a local initiative called All Girls Wrestling of which Barbados’ top female wrestler Crystal Holder is part and has a world ranking of fifth in the 60kg.
Payne took the time to thank the BWA board and President Rollins Alleyne, the BOA, the Women in Sport Committee and her family for their support.
This historical journey for Payne is not just a testament to the great work being done by the BWA but also the Barbados Mixed Martial Arts Association which she also represents.
Head of the BWA Rollins Alleyne and President of the Barbados Mixed Martial Arts Association Paul Forte both said they saw this as a great step for female wrestlers in Barbados.
“It is good for us to have some female representing the country in wrestling. It is indeed a big sport and for the first time we have had someone outside of Barbados pushing beach games here in Barbados on that front. Going forward from this experience when Yaima returns, what we will have is a beach wrestling initiative along with MMA to bring an enlightenment to the beaches in Barbados and more so beach sports,” Forte said.
“This initiative gives us the opportunity to really prepare our young ladies for these types of experiences. You would imagine yes it would cost a bit more money but this initiative is not just where we will showcase a wrestler but Yaima is also a certified coach and also experienced in the field of sports administration.
“So, what she will be bringing back to us is some experience in how we can take our young ladies further afield in terms of training and understanding the importance of international recognition. What it will do for us here in Barbados is not just boost the efforts of the young ladies but it will also give other young persons the opportunity to get outside of Barbados to represent the country in that sport,” Forte explained.
(morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)
The post Trailblazer Payne appeared first on Barbados Today.