COWDENBEATH Karate Club came home from the last 'major' on the 2015 karate circuit, the 2015 British Open held at the Emirates stadium with a neat medal haul.

Over 1200 entries converged for the tournament from all over Europe and beyond, with fights being televised as hopefully a final trail for the 2020 Olympic karate bid which only WKF Clubs and groups will be able to qualify for.

And Cowdenbeath Karate Club is affiliated to via the UK Sports council and the Scottish Governing body for karate.

A mixed day of results followed for the Cowdenbeath members with medals for Allan Goodwin, Ben Smith, Sammi Maxwell and Melissa Maxwell , who was unfortunately disqualified for excessive contact in her semi-final, and strong performances from Jack Sneddon, Richard Cairns, Elize and Ethan Bauld, who narrowly missed out on this occasion. However, top fighter of the day was Samantha Maxwell who retained her 2014 title and again won the championship after many hard fights despite, moving up another age section on the day.

The club received further good news when local store ALDI contacted Melissa Maxwell and have agreed to help sponsor her trip to Indonesia in November to fight in the U21 years World WKF Championships.

Melissa has fought abroad many times now and indeed won a European Scottish single association title in 2012 in Turin, under traditional rules, but this time she is fighting for the full Scotland squad which will be a much higher level.

The support from her new sponsors, and indeed present sponsor "Diamonds fitness," are greatly appreciated by the club and will help cover all her travelling and training costs , as she currently travels twice a week to Glasgow to train with the Scottish team under head coach Gerry Fleming .

Club coach, Allan Goodwin, thanked all the fighters and supporters who travelled to the British Open and hopes many more students from the Cowdenbeath Club can follow Melissa into the Scottish team in the future.

The club operates out of its own gym in Cowdenbeath at the Cowdenbeath Martial Arts Centre in Broad Street under the six different instructors who are all fully qualified and experienced with over 80 years of training behind them, and new members are very welcome .