Two European martial arts titles for a five year-old with excellent genes

Elise is only five, but her skills shouldn’t come as a surprise as her father is Sensai Rob Taylor, the last winner of the Peterborough Telegraph Sportsman of the Year (he’s won the prestigious prize on three occasions) and a highly decorated martial arts competitor himself.

Taylor senior, who has won multiple world, Europan and British titles, runs the Taylor Academy of Sport Karate at the Courtyard Business Centre in Norfolk Street and they joined forces with Hampton-based Inspired Kombat Academy to tackle the WKO event in Barnsley.

And the 28-strong group, which consisted of mostly beginners, performed brilliantly to return with 29 medals.

Rob Taylor and his TASK team at the European Championships.

Elise was the youngest competitor in action and the only one to come home with two golds.

Other standout performances came from gold medal winners Ewan Davies (IKA), boxer Luke Greenaway (TASK), Jack Smith (IKA), Braydon Popat-Evans (TASK), and Caitlyn Johnson (IKA.

Fighters travelled from all over Europe to take part in disciplines such as boxing, light continuous kickboxing and point karate.

Other Team IKA particpants were: George Crowley, Jaiden Notice, Conner Cassar, Conor O’Brien, Adam Wroblewski, Roxy Briggs, Astrid Fairhead-Abrahams, Halle Saville, Joshua Howard, Maciej Wroblewski, Michal Gornikowski, Oakley-Ray Saville and Nabiha Shah.

Other Taylor Academy members to take part in Barnsley were: Jazmyn Popat-Evans, Jakiya Fife, Vytautas Banys, Skaiste Stukaite, Taylor Popat-Evans, Markuss Nikolajevs, Elise Serniak-Taylor, Gabriellus Zukauskas and Tajus Dobilaitis.