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Italian job was Pisa cake for martial arts girl Kelly
MICHAEL Caine has got nothing on martial arts golden girl Kelly Ding when it comes to an Italian Job well done.
MICHAEL Caine has got nothing on martial arts golden girl Kelly Ding when it comes to an Italian Job well done.The 13 year-old Yaxley talent might not be a star of the big screen just yet, but in the world of karate she is very big news.
That's because Kelly has taken the World Traditional Karate Association (WTKA) Championships by storm for the second successive year.
Not content with claiming a hat-trick of gold medals in 2007, she returned to the city of Pisa last week to go one better and emerge victorious in every discipline she tackled by sending the competition tumbling in a city famed for a Leaning Tower.
The local lass was untouchable in the Under 15 section as she grabbed the gold in the sparring, creative kata, traditional kata and team kata categories.
The latter honour was the only one that eluded Kelly 12 months earlier, but she teamed up with Sheffield martial artists Daniel Maher and Kane Williams to put that right.
Kelly, who received the highest mark possible for her traditional kata display, said: "It was great to win three medals last year, but to go one better is brilliant.
"It is my best achievement so far and I am really proud of my performance.
"Out of the four, the win I am most pleased about is the creative kata because I have only been doing it for two-and-a-half years."
Not content with four world titles, Kelly has also won the British Series despite having to settle for second place in the final event at Leicester.
It was her first defeat of the year but she lost by just one point and second place was enough to win the title as she had won the three previous events in the series.
Kelly faces weekly Saturday training sessions in Sheffield and also trains locally on a regular basis when she is put through her paces by sparring coach Mo Malik and kata instructor Steve Thompson.
And proud father Andy added: "It makes all the dedication and hard work that Kelly has put in to martial arts worthwhile."
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