UPTON karate master Antony Pendlebury has become a British champion.

The Tokon Karate Academy sensei competed in the British Shotokan Karate National Championships and walked away with first place in the individual kumite (free-sparring) for brown to black belts.

Pendlebury also represented the victorious England squad in the three-man team kumite event, where his club team, consisting Reid Cowell, Danny Riddick and Derek Wilkinson, came third.

Chester club Tokon, based at Total Fitness, had two other entrants in the championships.

Danny Riddick, of Upton, came second in the individual kumite orange belt to purple and white belt and Reid, Cowell of Connah’s Quay, came third in the same event.