A TRIO of Hereford karate fighters were crowned world champions from a recent Florida competition.

The three competitors from Samurai Central Dojo club in Hereford travelled to Fort Lauderdale to compete in the 10th WUKF World Karate Championships as part of the KKO GB Team.

Charlotte Colbert, first year student at Hereford Sixth Form College, competed in five categories. She started in the All Styles Kata coming ninth out of a starting 30, before then narrowly missing out on a medal in her karate style kata Shito Ryu when she came fourth, a mere 0.1 behind third.

In her Individual Kumite Colbert final won the medal she deserved fighting her way to a bronze medal. The first team event for Colbert was Team Rotation where she and her two team-mates won silver in a close final match.

The team then continued onto Team Ippon beating Scotland in the final 2-1 and taking gold.

Danielle Dunn, manager at Pure Gym in Hereford competed in three categories. Unfortunately she was knocked out of the individual competition just before the podium, but came back with a bang the next day for two team events.

The team fought in Team Rotation and Team Ippon with her team-mates taking two World Championship Golds with Dunn securing one of the wins with a well landed head kick.

Chris Rowan, a serving member of the Parachute Regiment, fought in two categories.

Rowan started by earning himself a silver in the Individual Ippon in a tense and close final.

The next day Rowan went on to compete with the men’s Rotational Ippon Team alongside two team-mates fighting their way to bronze.

The KKO GB Team took a team of 24 across the pond, and the final medal tally was seven gold, seven silver and 10 bronze, an astonishing medal count for a small team at a World Championship event.

The team celebrated their achievements and are now reflecting and working on improvements for the European Karate Championships in Italy in October.

These three Hereford athletes are inspiring the next generation at Samurai Central Dojo.

The club recently saw a team of 14 competing in the Welsh Karate League, when for some it was only their first or second competition but the club came away with six golds, seven silver and seven bronze medals.

There were competitors from the under-8s to the adult categories.