COWDENBEATH Karate Club have had a busy month with championships across the UK, which produced a string of medals, and with one of their members fighting in Chile in the Adult Super League World Challenge in Santiago .

The club started the month fighting in the SK2000 national championships in Leven, an event for mainly young fighters, and the Cowdenbeath club totally dominated the event winning nearly every fighting section and doing very well in the individual and kata events also .

In the young Kickmaster events there were gold medals for Elize Bauld and Cole Webster, with silver won by Olly Smith

In the youths kata it was gold for Audrey Pennie, Elize Bauld and Robyn Ironside, with silver medals for Robert Gay and Mia Aitken, with bronze medals for Luke Sheilds, Cole Webster and Emma Duncan. Also in the team events Elize, Emma and Robyn won more gold with bronze medals in the adult team for Lewis O'Reilly, Ben Smith and Sammi Maxwell.

Sammi then won silver in the adult kata with club mate Ben Smith in third.

Next was the fighting events with Robert Gay winning gold with club mates Anna Smith second with John Gay third, Ross Duncan and Freya Black in bronze position. Next was the U10 event and another gold medal from the very impressive Cole Webster with Luke Sheilds in silver position and William Preston in bronze along with club mate Reily Cuthbertson.

The U13 fighting event was won by Mia Aitken with club mate Audrey Schartz in the silver slot. Club mates Robyn Ironside won gold, with Emma Duncan in silver position, in the U16 fighting event also.

With the two main adult events left, Cowdenbeath won both, with 16 year-old Sammi Maxwell sweeping away all opponents, and Ben Smith winning the Men's Open .

The Bill Williamson Trophy, awarded for the tournament's outstanding student, went to young Cole Webster.

Next was the long journey to Barnsley for the Yorkshire Open, an event with nearly 1,000, entrants and again there was gold for young Cole Webster, Elize Bauld x 2, and Mia Atiken.

Robyn Ironside won bronze in a very hard group, as did the Cowdenbeath adult team, who lost in the semi-finals on a split decision to a team made up of internationalists, with Ben Smith, Allan Goodwin and Lewis O'Reilly making up the Cowdenbeath team. Mia Aitken also won bronze in her open event. There were also good performances from Luke Sheilds and William Preston, who fought well but just missed out on medal slots.

The last event was the Wishaw Grand Prix, with young Luke Sheilds fighting very well to lose to the eventual winner 1-0 so bronze for Luke, but Elize Bauld came through her section with some hard fights to win gold as did Melissa Maxwell, who did not lost a single point as she also won gold in the women's Black Belt Open .

For Melissa next up was the long journey to fight in Chile to fight in the World Super Series, an event made up of the best fighters across the globe. Melissa drew her second round match against a world class fighter, but lost 3-2 on a split decision. The club were very disappointed in the result as they felt Melissa dominated the fight, but it was her first time at this level of event and great experience to compete at the highest level against mainly full-time older fighters .

Next up will be the Ishoj Cup, in Denmark, with club fighters Melissa Maxwell and Elize Bauld representing the club in this top level European tournament held in Denmark over three days.

Again this is step up in fighting class so both girls are training hard for the event held this Saturday (February 22) with massive help from the coaching staff in Tiff O'Reilly, Allan Goodwin and Ben Smith .

Instructor Ben Smith commented: "The club now has real strength in depth with respect to it's pool of fighters, with plenty of very young and promising exponents now making their mark in the national fighting circuit both in the UK and abroad.

"To progress you need to compete and compete more against the best not just be comfortable in your own gym.

"These events give us an idea of were we need to improve and how we measure up against other clubs and groups. Also a massive thanks to all parents who travelled to watch and support the team, it is fantastic and great encouragement for all the group"

The club has it's own purpose built dojo, at The Fountain Building on Broad Street, Cowdenbeath, and caters for all ages and abilities with a fun but hard training regime in place, so if you fancy training with one of the UK's top clubs then go along and speak to the coaches any week night in the evenings .