FOUR young Taekwondo stars from South Durham have qualified for the world championships in Crete.
One of them, Kirsty Lowther, 13, who trains at the Baek Ho school in Butterknowle, is one of the youngest athletes ever to qualify for the junior world championships.
The others, Nikki Tompkins, 15, from Ferryhill, Paul Horsely, 16, from Darlington, and Gareth Irvin, 17, from Spennymoor, will join Kirsty at the five-day championships in October.
Bryan Whiley, of Baek Ho, has helped train all four budding champions over the past few months.
He said: "Kirsty is my own pupil and she has done really well to get this far. She only just qualified to be old enough - if her birthday had been three weeks later it would have been too late.
"Taekwondo recently became an Olympic sport and I am priming Kirsty for the event by the time she is 20."
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