Junior Super Fly Continuous Sparring (N-90)
Continuing with the tradition, Team Alchemy took several of the junior continuous sparring titles including super fly. Seven year old Derek Torres of Alchemy won four eliminations matches to earn him stage rights against eight year old Erika Slade of Langley TKD also of Texas. Slade already had one loss to Torres. On stage Torres again topped Slade by a 40 to 27 score initiating himself into the NBL world title hall of fame. Jesse Martinez of Alchemy with six wins, took third.

Junior Fly Continuous Sparring (N-91)
With the same amount of wins as his younger brother, 10 year old Kevin Torres also of Team Alchemy of El Paso, Texas met Sergio Razo under the lights of the Grand Finale Stage. Razo, also from Alchemy, had one loss to third place Mitchell McDaniel. On stage Torres whipped Razo 48 to 23 to keep the winning tradition in the family.

Junior Feather Continuous Sparring (N-92)
Jorge Martinez slipped into the 77 pound and under division for one more year to attempt to retain his title. After five unmarred wins he was seeded for the Grand Finale against Jonathon Rios of Team Langley of Texas. After a one point lead by Martinez at half time he got decked by Rios with Rios ultimately being DQ'd. Martinez hails form Luis Morales' VIP Team from Guatemala in Central America. Last years fly weight champion, Alex Sandoval, took third.

Junior Light Continuous Sparring (N-93)
In a close Finale match, James Slade of Langley TKD took on Christopher Wilkins of NAAMA Karate under Zack Burns in Michigan. While Wilkins already had one loss to Slade in the eliminations he gave a valiant effort to top Slade but fell short again 99 to 87. Both kids were twelve years old. Robert Turner of Virginia was third.

Junior Light Middle Continuous Sparring (N-94)
Josue Guerrero of the Top Team in El Paso, Texas won all his eliminations matches to be pitted against point sparring champion Ashlee Grant of Bowman's Dojo in California for the title in this division. Grant had one loss from Guerrero in eliminations and gave a battle on stage, but fell short of winning a second sparring title, Guerrero won 57 to 43. Colin Navickas of Pacheco Martial Arts in California took third.

Junior Middle Continuous Sparring (N-95)
2005's light weight champion moved up in weight this year.... way up. Anthony McGinnis, the light weight champion last year skipped an entire weight class moving into middle weight this year. To my knowledge no junior as ever skipped a weight division class in the past and won. After a DQ for drawing blood McGinnis still earned stage rights finding last year's runner up, Benjamin Ferguson, as his opponent. Ferguson with a loss already to McGinnis, put on an exciting fight with a final score of 71 to 67 in McGinnis' favor. Rene Beltran of Mark Baier's Five Knuckle Bullet Team of Colorado took third.

Junior Light Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-96)
A highly anticipated Finale match, Torren Davis of Team RCU was taking on Richard Steckham of Canada's Team United. With a close score of 44 to 41 in Davis’ favor at half time he continued only to get disqualified for drawing blood. This evened the score as Steckham already had one elimination’s loss to Davis. The last match was fast, furious and exhilarating . The final score of 97 to 75 in favor of Davis didn't really reflected the closeness that appeared in reality. Davis is trained by Gerry Todd and Steckham by Trevor Nash. Connor Welsh also from United Karate in Canada took third.

Junior Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-97)
This is the story of the luckiest kid in the world. After two losses, Naveed Kermaninejad of Ray Pruitt's Karate Int'l in California wound up in third place. But after a weight violation, one of the finalists that was headed for the stage along with Antonio De la Garza of Texas was disqualified. Kermaninejad was located, put back in the running with one loss to De la Garza's no loss record. In two exhilarating matches on stage Kermaninejad topped De la Garza both times to win a title that he was originally out of contention for. Chris Urcinola of North Carolina and Team FX took third.

Junior Super Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-98)
A second junior fighter representing Team RCU made it to the Finale to attempt a continuous sparring world title. Matthew Okada of California won five matches and gave his opponent, Jonathan Garcia his only eliminations' loss. Garcia, who represents Team GOP and trains under Luis Jimenez, coudn’t top Okada in the Finale and went down 103 to 89 leaving Okada with his first NBL title. James Davidson of Texas won eight matches before losing two to place third.

Junior Girls’ Feather Continuous Sparring (N-99)
Rarely does a rookie in a single year aspire to dethrone the reigning chmapion. But Ali Viola of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania did just that preventing Colbey Northcutt from six world titles this year. Between Viola and Northcutt they monopolized all four national seeds, Viola with one and Northcutt with three and both remained true to their leadership by being the Finale finalists. Northcutt already lost one match to Viola in the eliminations 105 to 94 but made a comeback in the Finale 94 to 88 in the first match. However Viola refused to give in, winning the final and decisive match 123 to 106 for her first NBL world title. Chelsey Nash of Canada won nine matches, but after a DQ and loss to Lauren Ferguson, she wound up in third.

Junior Girl’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-100)
Reigning champion Chelsey Nash dropped weight leaving this division to Susana Boyd and Marissa Mayer to battle out. With an average seed, Boyd had to win ten fights to qualify for the Grand Finale. Marissa Mayer, who has steadily improved in continuous all year, took her only loss in the eliminations to Boyd meeting her again on stage for the title. Last year’s match between Boyd and Nash had a total of 30 penalty points awarded compared to a mere 4 this year as Boyd topped Mayer 101 to 87 for her first NBL world title. Boyd is from Long Beach, California and trains under Colin van Deusen, Meyer trains in Rhode Island with Joe Greenghalgh. Krystle Seley of Team Alchemy took third.

Men’s Feather Continuous Sparring (N-101)
And he fights too?!? Cody Hackman turned a lot of heads donning sparring equipment and mixing it up in continuous sparring. He managed to get disqualified once in the eliminations for drawig blood before heading to the Grand Finale against Matt Miller of Team B.O.S.S. for the title. This was a fiesty match on stage where penalty points determined the winner. Hackman had 13 penalty points called against him throwing the match to Miller with a score of 105 to 100. Without penalty points Hackman would have won 94 to 92. Hackman represents Daypuck Karate in Canada and Team Focus. Miller is from North Carolina. Mike Fitzerman of Thornhill, Ontario took third.

Men’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-102)
Never underestimate the Guatemalans. Shane Baker won’t. Going into the Grand Finale, Andres Garcia and Shane Baker both had a loss, Garcia to third place winner, Mike Pustyak of Utah and Baker to Garcia. Baker isn’t known to lose much these days so the final match for the title was anything but calm. The chants from both the Guatemalan delegation as well as Team United were evident as were the abundance of penalty points from the adrenaline flow. In the end Garcia reigned victorious. He had been last year’s featherweight champion dethroning Baker for lightweight this year.

Men’s Light Middle Continuous Sparring (N-103)
Jason Holmes of Team GOP hasn’t competed in continuous sparring since he won the title for middleweight in 2003. He won four matches in a row to earn the right to go to stage against Roark Hodson whom he’d already squashed once in the elimination 32 to 22. With wishful thinking Hodson wore gold equipment, but didn’t help his aspirations as he fell 95 to 75 adding to his collection of runner-up positions. Holmes is from Texas and Hodson from Utah. Luis Jimenez, last year’s champion, took third.

Men’s Middle Continuous Sparring (N-104)
Eli Quenzel not only wanted to win this year but he excelled for a double whammy winning both point and continuous. Both he and his Finale opponent, Oscar Barrientos of Mexico City, had eliminations losses. Quenzel lost to Barrientos and Barrientos to the third place victor, Marty Maye – last year’s champion. While these same three players took the top spots last year the order changed as Quenzel topped Barrientos 48 to 32 to win his second title of the Games.

Men’s Light Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-105)
The final match was to be between Bryan Young of California and Edgar Cordova of Guatemala but a bow-out by Cordova left Young to stand alone as the victor. Both are members of Team GOP. Wade Taylor of the DDX Team took third with losses to both of the champions.

Men’s Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-106)
A medical bow out left Team B.O.S.S. with another championship title as Scott Rempfer of Lee’s Martial Arts in San Jose, Californa conceded to Ryan Freeman of Waxhaw, North Carolina. Van Frasher of Ohio took third.

Men’s Super Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-107)
Tim Gustavson of DDX lost to James DeCore of the Five Knuckles’ Bullet Team by a mere two points in the eliminations so you know there would be retribution in the Finale. But DeCore, last year’s heavyweight champion, held strong fending him off 48 to 32 to win the heaviest weight class this year. Patrick Grigg of the MAC Attack Team in Canada won third.

Women’s Feather Continuous Sparring (N-108)
You can always count on Gina Thornton for two things... a smile and a good fight. She won four eliminations matches and gave Rena Truesdale her only loss before having to fight her again on stage for the titlle. Thornton who represents Team DDX and Super Kicks Karate in Virginia topped Truesdale again 86 to 51 to win her first continuous world title. Dorathy Ramon of Texas took third.

Women’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-109)
I won’’t tell you Kris Pilgrim’s age but she was twice as old as her Grand Finale challenger Tara Kermaninejad. By a mere point Pilgrim beat Kermaninejad in the elimination but in the Finale Pilgrim made it look easy winning the title 97 to 79. Pilgrim is a representative of Mark Baier’s Five Knuckle Bullet Team while Kermaninejad is from Ray Pruitt’s Karate International. Jessica Varma of Team Gotem took third.