At the Midland Championships held at Kettering, the Lynn students gained the following grades: Karl Brown 1st sparring, Neil Fuller 1st sparring, Lauren Hardy 1st sparring, Alan Jackson 2nd Sparring, 1st team sparring, Tomas Kurak 1st sparring, Sarah Middup 2nd sparring, Cameron Webb 3rd sparring, 3rd patterns.

The North Midlands Championships, at Derby, the following results were gained: Alistair Church 2nd sparring, 2nd patterns, Lauren Hardy 1st sparring, Sarah Middup 3rd sparring, Jake Rudd 3rd sparring, Charlotte Simpson 1st Sparring, 3rd Patterns.

The school had more than 150 students attend colour belt gradings at Lynn and Bury St Edmunds, and a 100 per cent pass rate was achieved, with all students passing with good grades.

The examiner was Master Paul Donnelly, 8th Dan.

More than 9000 students have now passed colour belt gradings through the schools in the last 21 years.

Three junior black belt students from Lynn and one from Downham attended a star grading at Lynn.

These star gradings are for junior black belts, where students can be promoted to either 1,2 or 3 stars. These stars are available to take each year and act as a promotion.

Dominic Havercroft, Edward Curl and Alex Havers all gained 1st stars from the Lynn school, while Lilly Bowers, from the Downham school, achieved the same feat.

Four students from Lynn and another from Long Sutton travelled to Bristol for their black belt gradings.

This is a very hard level to achieve, with it taking more than three years of hard work and dedication to reach 1st Dan black belt, while the higher Dans take considerably longer.

The students performed in front of a panel of five, 8th Dan Masters and the Lynn quartet of Alistair Church, Sarah Middup, Harley Smart and Hannah Smith all gained their 1st Dan, as did Katie Palmer from the Long Sutton school.

The school has now seen a total of 289 black belts achieved by our students in the last 21 years.

At the South East Championships at Hemel Hempstead, the following results were gained: Shane Lucas 2nd sparring, Shane Wagg 3rd sparring, Cameron Webb 2nd sparring, 1st Patterns, Lauren Hardy 2nd sparring, Charlotte Simpson 2nd sparring, Linda Ekins 3rd sparring, Tomas Kurak 1st sparring.

See our Sporting Life feature on page 53 of Tuesday's Lynn News for pictures.