COWDENBEATH Karate Club have been very busy already this year with tournaments across the UK and finishing off with a major tournament in Amsterdam and a medal trail has led back to the town.

Young fighters from the club first fought in Edinburgh at their junior championships with Olly Smith, Calvin Keenan, Glen Hayward and Luke Shields all fighting with Luke being the club's sole winner of a silver medal.

Next some of the club travelled down to Barnsley for the 2019 Yorkshire Open with Elize Bauld winning gold in her section and Melissa Maxwell winning silver in her event.

The Whitburn Championships were next up and the club produced some of its best results in a very busy event.

Luke Shields won gold again in his section as did young Elize Bauld.

Lucy McDonald fought her best of the year to narrowly lose out in the final as did Emma Duncan, both fighting in the cadets section.

Sammy Maxwell then won probably the hardest section with a controlled performance and another gold for the club. Sister Melissa also won gold in the adults section and club instructor Ben Smith won silver, in his event, to round off an excellent day for the club and ideal preparation for the trip to Amsterdam for the Benelux Open event .

The club then sent young fighters Olly Smith, Cole Webster and Luke Shields down to Penrith for the Cumbrian Open were the boys won silver in the team event.

The club then travelled over to Holland and had a pre-training session with the top Unity 99 Gym in Rotterdam before the tournament the following day in Amsterdam.

First up was Elize Bauld who won bronze in her section , then Sammi Maxwell drew her match with foreign opposition to only lose out on a decision so no medals this time.

Ben Smith gave his best performance of the year to win silver in the adult -67 kg event.

Melissa Maxwell was last up and after a narrow victory in her match v Belgium she then proceeded to sweep away all our fighters with her tremendous kicking ability winning the final 10-0 in the end to again win gold, another really impressive performance.

The club's instructors were pleased with everyone 's efforts and are now seeing more young fighters taking up the mantle and entering tournaments, many in their first year of training.

Allan Goodwin commended all for their efforts and commented: "Great to see these local fighters competing regularly as we try and develop them first in local tournaments and then on to National events and finally at the higher level abroad.

"Our aim is to try and offer every student the opportunity to be the best they can be and hopefully they can continue to improve and develop even further.

"Melissa Maxwell will fight in huge national event in London at the end of April against the very best females in the UK, which will be screened live and be held at a premier nightclub with all tables now sold out.

"The event runs in conjunction with a male £10,000 winner take all event so it should be a tremendous experience for her and indeed our small club.

"Although the youngest and probably lightest fighter in the event, we are sure she will give it her all and we wish her all the very best.

"A number of our top young women fighters, Robyn Ironside, Lucy McDonald and Emma Duncan are also just returning after injury so hopefully we can see even further success from them in the future."