Wednesday, March 28, 2007

SPOTLIGHT ON : ANDREA WHEATLEY

Andrea ‘The Doc’ Wheatley is an active ambassador for women in the sport of full contact Filipino stickfighting with protective armour. What is even more amazing is that, as her day job, Dr. Andrea Wheatley works in her own clinic as one of Adelaide ’s leading osteopath professionals, and she owns and operates the North Adelaide Osteopath Clinic.

Andrea has been practicing the martial arts and self defence since she was 18 years of age, and since this time, she has gone on to study the different components and basics of Karate, Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Boxing, Jujitsu and Filipino stickfighting. Andrea now holds a 2nd Degree Black Belt in the Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima system, and she is a two times World Champion in Filipino full contact stickfighting.

She is a.student of Master Vince Palumbo at the International Combative Martial Arts Academy in Adelaide , South Australia . She fought in her first International Stickfighting Competition in Los Angeles of the USA , and she lost to the eventual World Title winner by just a 1 point split decision. She has had 16 full contact stickfighting bouts, and she has won nearly all of them.

From her debut at the CACOY DOCE PARES ESKRIMA WORLD FEDERATION INTERNATIONAL STICKFIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2005 which were held in Los Angeles, it was clear that Andrea had what it takes to become a World Champion Stickfighter, and she has gone on to win many fights since that time, especially due to the fact that she has great speed and power with all of her strikes.

One of her more famous fights was at the 2006 World Stickfighting Championships held in Cebu City of the Philippines in November, against Diane Canete who is also the granddaughter of GrandMaster Cacoy Canete. Andrea put on an incredible display of stickfighting skill and fitness to beat her opponent in a very close and exciting match for the two female stickfighters.

Andrea’s instructor, Master Vince Palumbo, was in her corner and telling her to keep on chipping away at her opponent, and when the other girl had started to weaken with fatigue, that was when Master Vince shouted for her to fight hard and fast continually. Andrea produced the most incredible and accurate speed with her 29 inch rattan cane, and this plus her will to succeed, won her the very hard stickfighting match.

Andrea is now getting ready for the 2007 World Championships that are being held in Jakarta of Indonesia this year, and the event will be organised for November of 2007. Andrea has already had 2 warm up fights leading up to the competition in November, and she won both of her sport stickfighting bouts.

We all wish Andrea luck with her preparation for the World Championships, and we hope she comes back with the Winner trophy again this year!

Yours Faithfully, Master Vincent Palumbo
8th Degree Black Belt in the Martial Arts.