WILLIAM Pope is tipping his Langworthy Ken Yu Kai Karate Club students to shine at the forthcoming national championships after they won six kumite (fighting) medals at the Northern Open Classic in Leigh.

Chief instructor Pope, aged 30, joined forces with Stephen Surtees, aged 44, and Daniel McColgan, aged 18, to take the men’s team title.

McColgan also won a silver medal in the men’s individual open category while 32-year-old Richard Flitcroft took silver in the men’s individual red belt to blue belt section and 10-year-old Jack Brettle and nine-year-old Becky Darvill earned bronze medals in the 10 to 13 years and the under-10s events respectively. The other Langworthy club members competing at Leigh Sports Village were 13-year-old Adam McColgan, who recently won an under-16s team gold medal after being invited to the British Open in Sheffield, six-year-old Thomas Flitcroft and his five-year-old brother David Flitcroft.

Pope said: "I am confident that our guys will do well in the Ken Yu Kai Nationals in Eccles on Sunday, November 2.

"We will have more in that than we had in the Northern Open Classic as some members were on holiday for that one. And I am hoping that we will win a few individual gold medals as well as team gold medals.

"We won our first ever team gold medals in Leigh, which I was really happy with.

"I have been teaching Daniel McColgan since he was 13. So I was very proud to see him win a team gold medal with me and an individual silver.

"His silver medal was no mean feat as it came in an open category and he only weighs 10 stone if that.

"For a small club we did really well in the Northern Open Classic. It was a bigger competition than I thought it would be with 40 competitors in the men’s section and the standard in Leigh was quite high."

Anyone interested in joining the karate club should contact Pope on: 0161 799 2430.

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