ONLY three fighters travelled from Cowdenbeath Karate Club to the “Emirates Stadium” in Glagow, to fight in this year’s British Karate Championships, but came away with some fine results.

The Championships are open to all UK Goverment’s Sports Council approved associations and all the main groups from all over the UK were in attendance with some great fighters on display.

The event was run over one day this year but had 10 fighting areas in operation at any one time, with sections in both kata and kumite (free sparring).

The event is also a ranking event for Scottish and British National squads, with the medalists gaining vital points required for selection to their respective national teams so this ensured an extra edge to all the bouts.

First up, for Cowdenbeath, was Sammi Maxwell who just fell short of the gold medal but fought hard and with great skill but in the end had to settle for a silver medal on this occassion.

Next up was Melissa Maxwell fighting at Under 54kg in the Girls under 16 years black belt section, despite only turning 14 years of age last month.

Hard fights followed but not before Melissa won through to meet an English opponent in the final, which was televised via the internet on “livestream” TV .

Melissa manged to score with a crucial head-kick in the dying seconds to narrowly win the 2014 title, a really impressive result .

Last up was Instructor Alan Goodwin, who finished runner-up last year in this event and was hoping to become the club’s first senior British Champion.

Many hard months of training had been completed by Alan prior to the event and this was evident as he swept through the early rounds and on to the final. However, with the bout tied in the final seconds his opponent managed to secure the vital points to leave Alan again having to settle for second place.

Although slightly disappointed with the results the club are also pleased at their overall showing with club securing more medals than many large full time clubs who had also entered the event .

The club has now moved into a state of the art gym within Cowdenbeath, at the “Fountain” on Broad Street, which it hopes will provide a platfrom for it’s members to develop their karate to a higher level.

The club is always looking for new members, regardless of age, and has now added Melissa Maxwell to it’s coaching team. Melissa will now run a 3 to 7 years-old class on a Thursday evening and brings with her a wealth of actual top level karate fighting experience as she holds the current Scottish, English, Danish and British fighting titles.

Melissa has also been in Turkey fighting in the 2014 Olympaid Games representing Fife. For further information regarding joining the gym contact 07904422968 .