COWDENBEATH Karate Club fighters had a busy month on the continent fighting in Poland and in Germany with success in both countries.

Melissa Maxwell travelled to Lodz, in Poland, to fight in the 11th Harusto World Cup, held over two days to accommodate the 1000 entries from across Europe.

With early wins over German, Polish and Russian fighters, Melissa reached the final of the girls U54kg section were she narrowly beat the Danish National Champion to capture the 2014 title.

Next up for the club was a visit to Germany, to a base near Frankfurt, to fight in the German International Open. First up was Sammi Maxwell, who kicked her way to the 2014 title with some fantastic fighting. She then fought in a higher age group were she finished third for a bronze medal.

Richard Cairns was then next up and fought six times winning a bronze medal himself in a hard section of top European fighters and now hopefully putting himself in contention for a Scottish squad place next year. Melissa Maxwell was next up and swept into the semi-finals of her section, however despite winning 6-1 with 10 seconds of the bout to go, a head kick knocked her opponent out and she was thus disqualified.

Melissa then moved up to fight in a section three years her senior and again reached the final against the Luxembourg national champion.

The fight ended in a draw but Melissa lost out on a split decision after a tremendous battle.

Instructors Allan Goodwin and Ben Smith were to be next up but their section at minus 60kg was cancelled due to low entrants, which was disappointing as both Cowdenbeath lads had been training to a very strict diet before this event to make their weights.

However, both then entered the higher weight groups at 75kg! and fought with great skill to both collect bronze medals and end of good day for the club.

The team then flew home to Scotland the next morning after a very hard weekend fighting in the toughest of arena’s.

The club would like to thanks all the coaching team and supporters who travelled to Germany and their sponsors for this event “Smart Travel Coaches” and “Diamonds Fitness” for their continued support .

The club operates out of it’s own gym in Cowdenbeath, on Broad Street, teaching traditional and sport karate as well as Kickboxing , fitness and MMA, they are full members of the SKGB the national governing board for karate in Scotland and affiliated to the WKF, the only official body submitting for the Olympics in 2020. New members are welcome .