WIDNES Martial Arts School who were meant to be travelling to Scotland this weekend to compete in the 2020 championships will instead by holding classes over Zoom.

The team, who have been the reigning Scottish champions for the past five years, were meant to be travelling to Glasgow this Saturday to compete in the championships which sees around 800 competitors from the UK and Europe take part.

The students should also have been attending the European Championships the following weekend (Saturday 30th May), held in Norwich where around 1,200 competitors travel from all over the world for the coveted title.

Disappointed at not being able to compete Karl Martindale, who runs the classes for four to 64 year olds, has focussed his time and effort into Zoom training sessions three times a week across all ages/belts alongside assignments that need marking.

"The following weekend we would have travelled to Norwich to compete in the European Championships of which we have been the reigning champions for the past two years and would have been competing to keep the flag as is the case after three consecutive wins.”

Runcorn and Widnes World:

The classes, which have been running for 11 years, will now be held online every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with one class usually with 20 people."

He added: "We also hold disability awareness days for autistic schools and groups and have wheelchair martial arts classes."

Last year the team won over 200 gold medals, 450 silver medals and over 500 bronze between them at the two competitions.

Karl is no stranger to winning either with an impressive array of belts to his name. He is the reigning black belt champion at the following levels:

World champion 2018 and 2019.

European for five years running.

UK five years running.

Scotland four years running.

He added: "It's such a shame for the kids but we'll come back next year even stronger to defend our titles."

For more information visit the Facebook page at: Widnes Martial arts.