Last Sunday (28th Nov) at the Ulster Karate Championships in Londonderry, the Bailie brothers, Neil and Glen from the Carnalea club in Bangor, were both crowned Ulster Champions.

Neil collected gold in the Under 16 years Kata event, gold in the under 16 Team event and bronze in the Under 16 Sparring category. His brother Glen beat Northern Ireland stable mate Stephen Quantril in the final of the Under 13 Boys Sparring event.

Neil and Carnalea team mate Levi Kane represented Northern Ireland in the guest international match with the Republic of Ireland. Levi was matched against world cup star, Natasha Sheehan and lost by four to one. However in the individual sparring she upped her performance and only lost to Natasha by a point.

Other Carnalea stars in action were Claire McPeake, Kurtis Kane, Victoria Lindsay and young Andrew Wilson. Coach, David Brashaw, was particularly pleased with Andrew's first competition performance at national level. He advised “This was a big competition, it was very well attended, with over 300 competitors from all over the North competing for the silverware. To get onto the mat to fight in a competition of this size takes a lot of courage.”

Similar to other events seen recently on satellite TV, this year's championships were highly entertaining, with punches, kicks, tears, trophies, and jubilation for many of the Northern Ireland athletes.

David added “Unless you actually attend these events, see the amount of physical training that is needed for competition and how much fundraising that has to be done, just to compete, most people will never have any idea what it is all about. Once again the North Down kids proved, we should be very proud of them all.”