A WIDNES martial arts school is celebrating after its rookie students impressed during a distinguished tournament in which one of its fighters scooped the top award.
PK Sports Martial Arts School UK came away with a trophy after kickboxer Kirsty Currier outclassed her more experienced opponent to take the school's first ever title in its debut competition.
Paul Lund, instructor and co-owner of the Ditton-based freestyle martial arts school, could not hide his delight after his students 'excelled' themselves at the Doncaster fight arena on Sunday.
'I couldn't be more proud of all of my fighters,' he said. 'They have all put in brilliant performances and to come away with a trophy is beyond our wildest dreams.
'We have only been established properly for little more than a year and nearly all the fighters have been training for a matter of months.
'The opponents they were up were all black belts from the nationwide Premier Martial Arts whereas my students are only taking their grading in three months' time.'
Kirsty was put up against a senior black belt instructor and a volley of ferocious right hands gave her the nod over the York-shire woman who had been kickboxing for 15 years.
In other categories, powerful Ste Hankin and Alan Carr went close to landing titles while the other six students all impressed.
Paul added: 'To me, every single one of them who set foot in the ring are winners.
'Every student was up against more experienced fighters and all performed to the best of their ability.
'It is a landmark achievement for us. We have been aiming for this day for some time and when it finally came we stepped up to the plate.
'It's a dream come true as a lot of hard work has gone in, by instructors and students, to get where we are today.'
Lund says he has his eyes set on emulating top fighters such as Widnesian kickboxing champion Mark Taylor and West Bank-based cage fighter Michael Bisping in years to come.
He added: 'There are a lot of great fighters in Widnes and we hope we can produce some good fighters and walk in similar footsteps to the likes of Michael and Mark and gyms such as Wolfslair and Gary and Bernie Giam's.'
