STRAWN — A couple of local martial arts competitors are headed to the UK to represent Team USA in an international tournament in the fall.
Chloe and Kira Dutting of Mineral Wells qualified and were selected to be members of Team USA alongside others from Colorado, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, among other places across the nation in an upcoming international tournament. The International Combat Organization based in Europe is hosting a worldwide event, and the United States is sending its first team to compete.
The Dutting girls, who are 17 and 14, began their training in martial arts journey in Mineral Wells under the direction of Grandmaster Zedrick Burns of Zee’s Tae Kwon Do in 2021 according to their mother Christina Dutting. Then in March of 2024, they moved to Strawn Martial Arts and are now under the direction of Grandmaster Roy Kurban. During their time with both, they have competed in tournaments at the state and national level, and according to Christina, they each hold numerous titles and rankings among some of the top martial arts, weapons, and karate organizations and are now ranked atop their divisions in the Professional Martial Arts Conference in the national circuit.
The elder sister of the duo, Chloe, might be familiar to many of you as she used to write a column for the Palo Pinto Press called “Teen Squared” and gave us weekly updates on some of the happenings around the county that appealed to teens and young adults. Their mother Christina added, “Each of them competes in the creative weapons, creative forms, traditional weapons, traditional forms, and sparring (fighting) divisions. Chloe competes with a bo (staff), and Sai, while Kira competes with double nun chucks and Sai for weapons.”
Christina bragged on her girls by mentioning, “This is the first time the United States is sending a team to compete in the ICO World Championships and in order to qualify in the United States, you must compete and finish 1st-3rd at a nationally sanctioned event of which there are only 6 across the country. Both girls competed in the weapons, forms (kata), and sparring divisions at 2 of the 6 events finishing 1st-3rd in each of their age and rank divisions.”
The pair will be headed to Asheville, NC to train at the ICO facility with the rest of their team during the summer, to prepare for the October competition.
