Martial arts club celebrate World Championships medal haul

Members of ACMAC’s martial arts schools from Balby, Rossington, Bentley, Stainforth, Staveley and Worksop recently attended the event in Killarney.

And it was a combination of the club’s most experienced competitors and also their first-timers who came home with gold medals.

Three of ACMAC’s head instructors led the way by winning double gold in both Point Fighting and Continuous Kick Boxing.

Tiffiny Richardson, 20, Jade Humphries, 25, and Hayden Lindley, 31, increased their already impressive number of world titles to 16, nine and eight respectively.

But it was not just the experienced team members who shone during the week-long event.

First-timers Harrison Atick, 14, and Ella Barker, 13, both struck gold to take the gold medal count to eight.

Paul Neilson, Andy Townsend and Joe Wallace all won silver medals, with Andy and Joe also picking up bronze medals in other divisions.

Bronze medals went to George Emsley, Jon Glarvey, Kelly Ashbridge, Kieron Stuart and Abby Townsend.

Cieran Ashbridge reached the quarter-finals of his category and also placed fifth in Tae Kwon Do Patterns.

ACMAC were representing England alongside teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while the host nation Ireland were also well represented.

USA and Canada both fielded big teams, while Guatemala’s competitors took two days to travel to Killarney. Germany, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Honduras also took part in the event.

Chief Instructor Andy Crittenden said: “To win anything at this event was an amazing success and we were proud to bring home eight golds, six silvers and 13 bronze medals.

"The Championships were jam-packed and were of a great standard."

He added: “Next year the Championships will be in Orlando. If anyone can help us with sponsorship it would me massively appreciated.

"You can contact me by email [email protected] or by calling 01302 858335.”