Medals galore for Karate stars at World Championships in Portugal

​Instructor Dale Noble and 11 of his students shared 30 medals (14 golds, four silver, 12 bronze) at the five-day World Kickboxing and Karate Commission showpiece in Albufeira.

Brooke Cremona won five golds in the girls' 11-12 age group for 55kg-plus points fighting and points sparring, open weight, light continuous teams and tag teams.

Dale himself won his first gold medals after 27 years for points fighting in the men's over-35 over-85kg individual and team events as well as silver in the tag team event.

Matthew Godfrey won gold at his first world championships in the boys' 13-14 under-50kg points fighting and also won a bronze.

Flynn Tordoff won gold in points fighting for 11-12 boys under-45kg and won silver in the team fighting and open weight events.

Giorgia Sanna won points fighting gold in the girls' 11-12 under-40kg and in the tag team, and bronze in the open weight

Giovanni Caputo won gold in points fighting for boys' 15-17 over-80kg, and in the light continuous and team competitions.

Giovanni also picked up the Alex Eastwood Award (honouring the 15-year-old from Liverpool, who earned an England call-up before his passing this year) for his achievement and fighting spirit.

James Hudson won silver with the over-35 tag team and bronze in the under-85kg points fighting.

There were also points fighting bronze medals for Daniel Godfrey (boys' 15-17 under-70kg), Antonio Caputo (boys' 15-18 under-80kg), Jacob Smalley (boys' 11-12) and Amy Turner (girls' 15-17 under-55kg), who won another in the tag team event.

Logan Porter won bronze in extreme form for boys' 13-14.

Dale said: “All these girls and boys have trained so hard for this. As well as their normal four sessions a week, they have been doing extra sessions with me since April and home training. They have sacrificed so much and dedicated themselves to achieve this.

“I have never seen this level of success before. I am unbelievably proud of them all.”

Blackpool Karate was formed in 2005, holding sessions for anyone aged three to adult at St Stephen's Church or Claremont Park Community Centre. For more information visit blackpoolkarate.co.uk