Five students from the Phoenix Karate Schools travelled with club coach and AMA referee Vivianne Trorey 3rd Dan to the ITKA Northwest Open Karate Championships in Liverpool at the weekend. The competition which attracted many international entrants saw categories with as many as 50 participants.

Frasier Thompson, 14, performed well, moving forward constantly on his opponents. In the final Frasier showed how his international experience of 2011 has improved his skills and took the title with ease.

Claudia Anderson a newcomer to the squad was pleased with her performance and despite losing by just one point in her final was satisfied with her second place, vowing that she would improve on this next time. Sophie Stephenson and Simone Folkes were both fighting in the same section and were unlucky not to reach the final when they both lost to fellow AMA squad members in the semi finals. Daniel Smith also gave a good performance and reached the final in his section, where he could not pull back the one point lead taken by his rival and had to settle for a silver medal.