A Scottish champion kickboxer aiming to compete in the world championships in Italy later this year could have his hopes of a medal dashed through lack of funding.
Sean Wanless, who runs Dundee Elite Freestyle Kickboxing Club in Lochee and who holds a joint Commonwealth title and came second in Europe’s largest and most prestigious tournament, the Irish Open in Dublin, says without some kind of sponsorship he will struggle to afford to attend the world championships.
Sean says one of the biggest frustrations he has is watching the preparations for this summer’s Commonwealth Games with some of the world’s top athletes, who earn thousands of pounds from the sport, due to compete.
Instead he says, he and others in the sport struggle to finance their own international-class careers in the sport, which is not one of the chosen disciplines at the Commonwealth Games.
Light-middleweight Sean, 31, who is currently at Abertay University part-time on the elite athlete programme, is due to take part in a major competition in South Shields next month as part of his preparations for the world title attempt in October.
He said: “The club was only founded in August 2012, but since then we have been to five major tournaments and had four title fights.
“We have had my five-year-old son Riley taking a third place at the Scottish championships, David Jones winning two golds and a silver and also picking up the 57kg Scottish Full Contact Championship title.
“I won the Scottish title and the Celtic title at light-middleweight, had a draw in my Commonwealth title fight and came second in Dublin.
“We have plenty of fights coming off in the year ahead, with myself fighting down in South Shields on April 26 and David Jones fighting on a big show on March 29, then heading down to Irvine to fight for the Scottish title.
“We then we have the big one in Italy at the start of October. Me, Riley and Dave will be going to Italy for the world championships as we are all qualified to represent Scotland.
“The problem is getting the funding to get out there and do ourselves justice. It would be great to get sponsorship for that one.
“It’s quite frustrating to see all the money that goes into Commonwealth and Olympic athletes and pretty much get nothing unless we get sponsored.
“As for the club itself we have got loads of up-and-coming fighters, the kids are doing really well, most of them are fighting in the ring in demo bouts, but they’re doing great. We have the Scottish Open on March 30 coming up, I’m taking the club down there mainly for the kids to fight on the mats.”
Anyone wishing to sponsor Sean or help support the contenders in any way can contact the club on 07766188311 or through Facebook.