A MIXTURE of school-age karate students and adults have celebrated success after they took home 15 medals during the Yorkshire Open Championships 2019.

The winners, part of JS Karate who are based in North Yorkshire, managed to secure six gold medals, three silver medals and six bronze medals for their efforts at the event in Barnsley.

JS Karate founder James Scanlon who runs training sessions in Thirsk, Northallerton, Bedale, Ripon and Masham said some under 10’s took home the medals.

Mr Scanlon said: “We do something called kata. We were entered in 26 'kata' categories and we got 15 medals out of them.”

The annual Yorkshire Open Championships remains esteemed in the karate industry and attracts just under 1,000 entrants each year.

He added: “It’s one of the first big competitions of the year, it is a very good start to the year – we have always won lots of medals at these competitions. We put so much effort into preparing for these championships.” Mr Scanlon, 23, set up the business five-years-ago when he started his business and since then many of his students have gone on to enter national competitions.