MARTIAL ARTS: AFTER winning the North Midlands Area Championships for the previous five years, Ellesmere Port & Neston Tae Kwon-Do's depleted squad had to settle for silver at last week's event in Alfreton, Derbyshire.
However, instructor Tony Littlejohns was still delighted by his club's performance despite the odds.
He said: 'We suffered badly with the holidays and our numbers were down by about 60%, but all those who did take part were fantastic. We're not downhearted and we'll go back and win it next year.'
Nine-year-old Jessica Neyland struck a double gold as she took top spot in the girls' blue-belt sparring and patterns, while Katherine Tyrell, eight, took gold in the girls' peewee blue-belt sparring.
Alexandra Rigby, seven, secured a gold in the girls' peewee green-belt sparring and David Percival, 14, grabbed top spot in the boys' heavyweight yellow-belt sparring, even though he wasn't originally going to enter the section.
Littlejohns said: 'I told David to have a go as he wouldn't know how good he really was if he didn't give it a try, even though he wasn't too sure, and he ended up winning the gold.'
Cali Clarke, 14, grabbed gold in the girls' middleweight green-belt sparring, eight-year-old Aimee Jones collected gold in the girls' yellow-belt sparring and silver in patterns and Sam Morgan, nine, won silver in the boys' lightweight yellow-belt patterns.
