JAMAICA'S bid to win their fifth straight opening leg of the annual Caribbean Martial Arts Games came to an abrupt end in Havana, Cuba, last Saturday.

The five-man team contest against hosts Cuba was abandoned in the third bout after serious injury to Shawn Cummings with Jamaica's Combined Martial Arts team, the Busta Fighters, leading 1-0.

All seemed set for another intriguing clash of Caribbean rivals after Jamaica's Nicholas Dussard, the International Tae Kwon Do Federation Pan-Am lightweight champion winning the first bout easily.

Kenneth Edwards was out next and the US Open world silver medallist, according to reports, dominated his opponent but the match was incredibly declared a draw.

With Jamaica 1-0 up, disaster struck in match three when Cummings was struck in the mid-section, resulting in him being rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

Ironically, the same fighter, who similarly caused Dwayne Brown to be carted off to hospital last year, hurt Cummings.

Jamaica's coach, Claude Chin, demanded the fighter be disqualified and the Cuban officials refused.

What team sources said was "out of respect for the injured fighter", Jamaica refused to continue and the match was aborted. The next match in the four-nation Caribbean Championship is set for Venezuela in March.