24 October 2006

As reported last week three of North Down's top junior karate stars were heading off with the Northern Ireland team to the WKC World Championship in Hannover . Approximately 1500 competitors from about forty world wide Federations competed at the event and unbelievably one of the Bangor students came home with a medal.

On Saturday 21 October 2006 fourteen year old Glen Bailie became the first junior ever from Northern Ireland to win a world medal by collecting silver in the under 15 year old Wado-Ryu kata division.

Coaches back at the Carnalea Karate Club were delighted. David Brashaw commented "Two years ago I took the first ever official all-styles Northern Ireland junior team to this event. The best we did was seventeenth in a kata event. Glen's success last weekend in Hannover is simply stunning. He, like his local team mates, Claire McPeake and his brother Neil, have trained very hard for the last year in preparation for this event. Glen certainly is very deserving of this fantastic success."

It was almost two medals for the local brothers as Glen's brother Neil lost out by the narrowest margin possible, by point one, in a play-off for a bronze medal in the Cadets Wado-Ryu kata competition. Claire who is currently a purple belt, was delighted to make the final of her kata event eventually finishing sixth, being beaten only by brown and black belts.

In the fighting competition all three students fought out of their skin but just missed out on medal places. National coach, Jeff Hillis added "These kids were amazing. The standard at these world championships needs to be seen to be believed. This year our juniors showed just how far Northern Ireland has come in karate at world level and will certainly be looking for more world medals in the future."

All three student agreed it was an amazing experience and are already aiming to compete at the next World Championships in Serbia in 2008.

Glen, Claire and Neil