LOCAL martial arts competitors from a Worcestershire club celebrated their Covid hit year with their annual awards announcement.

Sally Gleaves is the founder of Worcestershire Martial Arts, based on the Shrub Hill Industry Estate, their main art form is Taekwon-Do, but also deliver Kickboxing and other martial arts based fitness classes.

They pride themselves on being very active in the community, but also coach a team of successful national and international competitors.

Sally said it has been a challenging year but has been taken back by how well her team have coped.

"After one of the most challenging years Worcestershire Martial Arts students has faced, we've been amazed at how well our students have tackled their training this year," she said.

"With physical competitions limited to the first part of the year, our competitors did incredibly well in face to face competition, and finished off the year with online competitions, including success at online World & National competitions."

The annual competitor awards, decided on a points system per medal won:

Adult Competitor of the Year 2020 - Luke Holland-Bowyer

Junior Competitor of the Year 2020 - Kieran Hodgson

Under 10's Competitor of the Year 2020 - Zaria Fudger

Recognising achievement awards:

Tiny Kwon-Do Best Effort 2020 - Laara Alam - Laara showed real maturity during this challenging year and put a lot of effort in to improve her technique during our Tiny Kwon-Do class (under 8s)

Most Improved Student 2020 - Dan Gentle - showed amazing dedication to his training during lock down and in our kickboxing classes upon return to face to face training, where his lockdown training had paid off with improvement to his technique.

Student of the Year 2020 - Michael Fudger & Junko Steptoe - both of these students showed outstanding commitment and dedication to their training during lockdown but also as ambassadors to our school, taking part in online events and competitions.

Instructor of the Year 2020 - Adam Monks - who has supported the school during the year by coaching both virtually and face to face, thinking of innovative ways to coach martial arts while maintaining Covid security, social distancing and helping our students to feel safe.

He also helped the school to produce 120+ on demand training videos for members to access while in lockdown.