Two members of a martial arts group have won gold medals at the World Championships in Rome.
The two kick-boxing competitors from React Martial Arts in Rowley Regis – the coach Arron Walker and junior member Harvey Adlam – won their world titles earlier this month.
Arron and Harvey, who is aged 11 from Cradley Heath, competed in ring continuous, mat continuous and boxing, at 85kg and 35kg respectively.
Arron won the gold in ring continuous and bronze in the other two disciplines and Harvey got gold in mat continuous, silver in ring continuous and bronze in boxing.
“It was a highly competitive world championships on 3 and 4 November, with teams from Spain, Sweden, USA, Mongolia, Morocco and Italy, to name just a few,” said Arron.
“It is a great achievement for our small club we managed to get medals from six categories with only two fighters,” said Arron.
Arron said the club, which was set up in 2014 to encourage kick-boxing in the area, were now anxious to get some new faces in the squad to train-up for future championships.
Arron said the club we were an active member of the community activity network (CAN) co-ordinated by Matt Hill and now attend regular public health meetings with Matt.
As part of the CAN, the club received some funding from Sandwell to help promote new sessions to encourage more young people to take up the sport. Members have worked in primary and secondary schools in Sandwell.
Sandwell Council's cabinet member for leisure, Councillor Bill Gavan said: "I was very pleased to hear of these amazing achievements by members of the local club.
"I hope their efforts encourage more people to get involved in this highly successful organisation."
