Eight year-old Aryia was among three youngsters to win a national kickboxing title

The city’s multi-prize winning Hicks Family Martial Arts club are celebrating three national kickboxing champions.

Aryia Townsend, James Thurling and Sophie Hicks all won gold medals at the two-day Kickboxing GB Nationals event in Coventry.

Townsend, who is just eight years-old, finished top of the class in the ‘Musical Forms Open Hand Children’s Female’ category.

Ten year-old Thurling won the ‘Musical Forms Open Hand Young Cadet Male’ event.

The Hicks Karate team at the Kickboxing GB Nationals in Coventry

And Hicks (15) was first in the ‘Musical Forms Weapon Junior Ladies’ tournament.

Townsend’s wonderful weekend also included a third place finish in the ‘Children’s Girls -27kg Points’ event.

There were also podium finishes for Casey Stone who won won silver in the ‘Musical Forms Weapon Senior Ladies’ event and for Oliver Profitt who won bronze in the ‘Junior Men’s -52kg Points’ competition.

But the club awarded their ‘Fighter of the Day’ prize to a youngster, Shiv Patel, who just missed out on a top three placing.

A club spokesperson said: ‘Shiv fought exceptionally well with excellent movement and on-point leg work. Missing out on the podium was very unlucky.

"It was a tough weekend of competition with incredibly high standards across all disciplines and sections, just what you’d typically expect from the Kickboxing GB Nationals weekend.

"With a lot of new international team members we saw a lot of great Kickboxing GB debuts for Hicks Family Martial Arts.

"And they didn’t disappoint. They showed impeccable skill and resilience in very big categories, and with the highest talent on display, so everyone did amazingly well.

"Getting a point at a competition like this is an achievement, winning a round is brilliant and making the podium is a huge achievement so they can all be very proud.

“Well done to our kata team who all showcased new katas they’ve been working on. There was some great feedback from the kata judges.

"And obviously huge congratulations to our 3 Kickboxing GB British National title holders Sophie, James and Aryia.”

The club is next in action at the popular Peterborough Series at Bushfield Sports Centre on Sunday, March 16 which also feature many other city and locally based martial arts clubs in action.

The Hicks Family Martial Arts club is based at 4 Vicarage Farm Road (PE15TP) in Peterborough. Telephone 07974 196256 for more information including free trials.