A squad from Phoenix Karate Schools travelled across the country at the weekend to compete in the Liverpool Open tournament.

With 400 taking part and squads from Ireland and Scotland attending with international medal winners the competition was fierce but the squad returned with one gold, six silvers and two bronze medals.

Ollie Whittle from Gorleston and Zara Williams from Lowestoft were praised for their strong performances by KKO squad coach Brian Hall.

Ollie came away with a silver in his individual kumite and another silver in the team with Billy Baker and Leighton Kerr. Zara, 14, took bronze in her individuals and a silver in the 15-17 year old girls team kumite.

Leighton performed well in his individuals and took a bronze medal.

Aaliyah Miller from Lowestoft, an up-and-coming fighter, did well to reach the semi-finals, but could not get the reach needed to beat the eventual section winner from Manchester.

Johannes Bieber was asked to fight for the Kanzen Karate Team in the boys 10-12 years and came up against his team mates in the final. The teams were drawing after the first two fighters and Phoenix were winning up to the last 10 seconds of the third fight when the opposing team scored a head kick to take the title.

Oliver Wadhams, William Mortimer, Cory Newton-Adams, Kashia Wadhams, Samantha Mortimer, William Snowling and Tay Emmerson all went out before the medals but managed to get through at least one round before bowing out.

It was a good start to the year for the squad but everything will harder with the World Karate Championships in Dundee coming up in June. Nine members of the squad have been given the chance to attend and will be training extra hard to succeed. They are all looking for a sponsor to help them with the cost of attending this and the necessary tournaments leading up to it.

Any person or business that can help is asked to contact Phoenix instructor Vivianne Trorey.

Anyone wishing to train with Phoenix Karate Schools at Martham, Caister, Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, Hopton, Lowestoft and Oulton Broad can contact Vivianne on 01502 730171 or 07895 550168 or visit the website at www.phoenixkarateschools.co.uk for details.