Successful students from the Ilkley Karate Club based at the Ben Rhydding Methodist Church won numerous trophies at the SKU Premiere Kumite Karate Championships 2002 held at Stalybridge in Manchester.

The Ilkley Club run by instructors Mark Outterside (4th Dan) and Simon Holden (1st Dan) came away with an amazing two first place, three second place and seven third place trophies.

In the girls junior grade kumite under 4ft 6ins category Naomi Craven once again came out on top by taking the first place trophy the final score in the final was 8-0 with made the bout very one sided. Younger sister Dione Craven settled for third place after narrowly losing out in the semi-finals.

Andrew Johnston came third in the boys' junior grade kumite (free fighting) under 4ft 6ins event. This takes Andrew's trophy tally to a staggering eight trophies in as many months since he started, which is an amazing achievement for someone so young.

Richard Brown took second place in the boys' junior grade kumite (free fighting) under 5ft 6ins category after storming through the preliminary rounds. Richard's achievement was well deserved as he making his debut in the competition. Fellow club members Ashley Woodhouse and Daniel Baxandall came joint third in the same event.

Competing for the first time 14 year-old Abbie Thornton came third in the girls' junior grade kumite under 5ft 6ins event. Fifteen-year-old Jamie Chiekh was second in the boys' brown belt over 5ft 6ins category. Jamie also put in a good performance in the over 5ft team event.

The under 5ft boys' team consisting of Andrew Johnston, Laurie Picken, Ty Abraham (team captain) and Alex Chambers all juniors grade put in an excellent performance to take bronze medals especially as they were competing against brown and black belts with over 20 teams taking part.

The Ilkley ladies put in a very rewarding performance taking a first, second and third place. The three ladies taking part were Hazel Craven and making their debuts Jo Croft and Zoe Sayer all came away with at least two awards each.

Zo Sayer took a well-deserved first place trophy in the ladies' yellow/orange belt free fighting event. Jo Croft came third in the ladies' green to purple belt category. The success didn't stop there as the ladies team of Hazel Craven, Jo Croft and Zo Sayer took silver medals narrowly losing 2-1 to a strong team.

Anyone interested should contact Mark Outterside on 01943 601297 or visit the club website on www.ilkleykarate.co.uk.