Yarmouth’s Jade Munro struck gold in the Amateur World Kickboxing Championships in Italy and bagged three silver medals as well.

Jade, 15, who also won World Full Contact Kickboxing Championship gold in Scotland in 2010, travelled to Pisa, Italy with the England squad and was selected to represent her country in three categories; the kickboxing Freestyle (low-kicks) -50 kilos category; The K1 Kickboxing -50 kilos category and the Light Contact Kickboxing -50 kilos category.

The five-day event twas attended by 4000 competitors from over 80 countries from as far away as Venezuela, Brazil, Columbia, Lebanon, Iran, Malaysia, Australia and Morocco.

Jade beat the favourite, Italian champion, Melanie Innocenti, in the semi-finals of the light contact to earn a finals place against the Czech Republic’s Kristyana Zemkova.

Jade also battled her way to the finals of Freestyle Kickboxing beating Italy’s Modeno in the semis along the way. She also got to the finals of the K1 category, thus booking her place in all three finals.

On the last day of the championships all the finals were contested. Jade’s first bout was the light contact final, up against her was the Czech Republic’s Zemkova. Zemkova started well with a very good array of kicks but as the bout progressed Jade began to dominate with her sharp boxing and fast body kicks. At the end of the bout all the England coaches and the majority of the other nation’s coaches and spectators were convinced Jade would get the gold, however the judges awarded the gold to the Czech girl.

In the final of the freestyle (Low-Kicks) category Jade moved up a gear and completely dominated her German opponent Sabrin Stenk with her fast boxing skills and powerful low kicks winning a unanimous points decision and winning her secondd World Championship in three years.

Jade said: “It was a massive emotional experience, standing on the podium with the gold medal around my neck and the national anthem playing.

“I’d like to thank my coaches Dave Munro (dad), John Hutchins and Frank Crosswell, my sponsors Andrew Maveroudos of Caesars Bar, Ben Jay and Venture academy for funding the trip, and Darren Casey (Nutrition), Scott Graysmark (Cardio) and Aaron Monson (Sports Injury Therapy)”.

Dave said: “I’m so proud of her. She was training four times a day, and going to school in the build-up to the championships and also dieting hard to make the championship weight.

“She was shattered, but she was brave and relentless throughout the tournament against the best girls her age from all over the world.”

Jade also won the silver medal in the K1 category where unfortunately she was forfeited in the final for not getting to the ring on time when no one had heard the announcement due to the noise of all the anthems of five different podiums and the MCs of 20 different boxing rings and matted areas all announcing in Italian at once.

The English delegation appealed the decision, as it was impossible to understand any changes to the programme as everything was in Italian, but the appeal was dismissed and the Italian Sara Modeno was awarded the gold and Jade (who had already beaten Modeno in the freestyle) was awarded the silver. Jade was asked if she would step in to replace an injured Brazilian girl in her K1 final at -60 kilos (two weight categories higher than Jade’s).

Jade’s opponent was the Welsh kickboxing champion at that weight, and it was a big ask for the much lighter Jade, but the tough Yarmouth world champion was adamant that after losing out on her K1 final she was going to fight and she produced probably her best performance of the day. The Welsh girl produced excellent high kicks, often penetrating Jade’s guard, but Jade was constantly landing heavy low kicks and fast flurries of punches, with the bout swinging first one way then the other. At the end of three rough relentless rounds the Welsh and English contingents held their breath as no one knew which way it would go.

Iin the end it was a split decision win for the far heavier Welsh champion.

Jade had held the honour of being the only female kickboxer from East Anglia to ever win a World Full Contact Title and now is the proud owner of two.

She has now won the following titles: two world, one Commonwealth, one ABA National Boxing, seven national and British titles (in kickboxing, Muay Thai and light contact) and two regional titles. She is the most successful female kickboxer ever to come from East Anglia.