MEMBERS of a Hereford karate club came away with over a dozen gold medals fighting against some of the country’s best.

The Combat Academy Karate and Kickboxing Team celebrated major success in Coventry at the English Contact Karate Association (ECKA) Jubilee Cup Championships.

The Foley Trading Estate club fielded a team of 19 fighters, comprising of a mix of seasoned fighters along with quite a few members competing outside of the club the first time.

They came away with an impressive haul of 14 golds, 13 silver, and eight bronze medals.

Eight-year-old Sophie Small was competing in the under -5ft girls and fought well scoring with a good variety of techniques to claim an impressive triple gold.

Club Coach Chelle Banes made a return to competition mat purely to help build the teams points total in the chance of winning the ECKA Cup.

It paid off with her not only placing but taking the top spot and first place in the Adult senior Freeform section.

Continuing the winning streak Theo Price put in some great performances during the competition.

Fighting in the boys -4’8 purple-black belt semi contact & light continuous divisions winning out right and taking double gold.

Another double gold went to Robbie Hearn, competing in both men’s Beginner - purple belt Light Continuous and point.

Girls Grace Lucas and Daisy McGowan ended up meeting and sharing two finals together in both the Girls -4’8 advanced semi contact and light continuous.

McGowan won the Semi Contact and Lucas won the Light continuous.

Shawn Au-Yeung claimed gold in the veteran open weight, open grade Light Continuous division with the added bonus of sharing a one-two-three podium with team-mates Neil Richards in second and Andy Bailey in third.

Another large medal haul saw for 17-year-old assistant coach Alex Douglas win gold in the Cadets light continuous also achieving a silver in Cadet semi contact.

The trophy collection grew even bigger when he stepped up in to the adult senior grade semi contact and earned himself another second place trophy.

Older brother William secured his first award of the day in the children’s advanced freeform.

After a tie for the top spot he had to perform again unfortunately on the tightest of margins being pushed to 2nd place, also coming away with a bronze medal in the semi contact.

Father to both boys Neil had some great fights and scored good points to take silver in the semi contact. Light continuous was the same and another silver.

Brothers Daniel and Nathan Baker competed in the boys +5'4 up to purple belt divisions but under different disciplines.

Daniel took victory in the semi contact and Nathan silver in the light continuous after a close final.

David Keder, another junior student stepping up and out of the club to compete in all three disciplines, successfully managing a silver in freeform, bronze in light continuous and just missing out in semi contact.

Roxy Johnson was the only adult female student from the club to step onto the mats and winning bronze in semi contact and light continuous.

Two further bronze medals for the team came by way of coach Josh Small competing in the cadets semi contact and light contact divisions.

All these amazing performances amassed the team with a staggering 76 points putting them at the top of the table in the overall team standings earning the Hereford Club title of ECKA Cup Champions.