NI junior kickboxers bring home gold medals for Lurgan club

Each contestant Fight Club NI took to the world championships fought their way to a gold medal

Five junior kickboxing students from a small club in Lurgan, County Armagh, have shown they can punch above their weight by winning 11 gold medals at the world kickboxing championships.

Fight Club NI finished tenth in the competition against 150 countries.

Nine-year-old Steven Gill won six gold medals, placing him third on the leader board of more than 1,500 fighters, including adults.

Junior squad coach Gary Nelson said the result was "astounding".

"It's an unbelievable result," he said.

"I'm so proud of the young fighters, it's such an achievement for them."

Students train in an old mill in Lurgan

One of the smallest clubs in attendance at the World Kickboxing Organisation (WKO) open championship in Barnsley last weekend, each contestant Fight Club NI brought to the competition fought their way to gold.

The students train three times a week at a small gym in an old mill, tucked behind a row of shops in Lurgan town centre.

It may be an unassuming building, but it has a long track record of training young champions in the 20 years since it opened.

Steven Gill won six gold medals at the tournamnet

Steven Gill, who returned home from the championship with six gold medals, has been practicing at the club for four years, nearly half his life.

He said commitment is the key to success in the ring.

"You have to train really hard - pretty much every day" he told BBC News NI.

"It's very hard but it is fun, so it's easy to keep at it - but then the more you keep at it the harder the fights get."

Ten-year-old Scott Watson has been kickboxing for nearly as long as he has been walking - from the age of three - and has the air of a professional fighter.

Already a world champion kickboxer, he has won the Northern Ireland championship four times and brought home two gold medals at last weekend's competition to add to his growing collection.

"Runs, circuits, medicine ball slams - it's just a lot of training in general," he said.

"Now I just want to win more stuff."

Lachlan Toland said kickboxing had completely changed him as a person

The club's junior fighters all agree kickboxing has built their confidence, something they carry with them every day.

"It's completely changed me as a person," said 16-year-old Lachlan Toland, another WKO gold medallist.

"Once you start training and you're fitter and stronger than you've ever been it's a completely different level of confidence you have in yourself - it's amazing."

Lachlan said winning a medal was "a pretty surreal feeling".

"People were surprised you could come from a small club in Lurgan and win such a big tournament.

"It's a really close club, we all work well together, all look out for each other - I think that's one of the reasons why we're so successful."

Fight Club NI founder David Boyd [left] and junior squad coach Gary Nelson [right]

Fight Club NI's founder, veteran kickboxer and trainer David Boyd, said recognition won at the world championship brought club members pride in themselves.

"We receive no funding whatsoever - we never have," he said.

"Kickboxing is not a recognised sport to the sports council, which I think is a travesty, but we're self sufficient.

"We don't make much money, but any money we make we turn it back into the club - everything in this gym we've bought ourselves."

Mr Boyd said he plans for the club to grow from strength to strength.

"The bigger and better we get, the better our fighters will be - I'm very, very proud of the kids, but there's a lot of work to do yet."