Sports school founded in Acomb wins 39 medals at world event

Twenty-nine X Martial Arts Schools’ athletes qualified to represent England in the 2024 World Karate and Kickboxing Commission championships (WKC) which took place in Albufeira, Portugal between October 26 and November 1.

The athletes brought home 13 gold, 15 silver and 11 bronze medals.

Father and son team members Reuben and Chris Burnham with their coach Jay Spain (Image: Supplied) All were captured in Sport Karate, where each strike is scored by three judges and success comes through timing and speed, all within the framework of traditional Karate concepts.

Luke Burks, who founded the school as a 20-year-old in 2013 said: “It was the biggest team we’ve ever taken, previously our largest contingent of athletes at a world champs was 14.

“We normally do pretty well, but this year was definitely our best.

“We made qualification for our world championships team a formal programme at the schools, our members signed up to it, agreed what they were committing to and the extra training sessions that they needed to come to.

“The medals are the reward for that extra effort, the extra dedication and also a reward for the instructors.

“There was quite a new team to blood in a few years ago, they’ve become more experienced and a bit more developed now and not so fresh on the competition scene.

“There were a couple of the team who were new to international competition and really rose to the occasion.”

TEAM X athlete James Ledgard with his two 2024 world championship gold medals (Image: Supplied) When pressed on this last point, Luke said: “I think special mention goes to Lucas Liddle, a 15-year-old from Clifton Moor.

“He is very dedicated and went to his first WKC in 2022, losing in the final.

“That put a real hunger inside him and this year he attended the most training sessions, committing most of his time, coming in on his bicycle in all weathers.

“He got the gold medal and is undefeated this year.”

Lucas Liddle (centre) with coaches Cole Rochester and Luke Burks (Image: Supplied) Luke said the training programme highlights included outdoor fitness work and 6am starts each week.

He said: “There’s been some pretty intense sessions over the past few months.

“It’s not just about training the athletes’ physical levels, and early morning sessions testing their mental strength and toughness, putting them to the test when it’s cold, dark and wet and they’ve got a shift at work to go to after our session.”

X Martial Arts Schools has centres in Acomb, Malton, Harrogate, Leeds, Ossett and Shefield and Luke confirmed that none of the athletes have sponsors, meaning that attendance at the week-long world champs was either self-funded or through donations.

Luke said that after a competition weekend in Newcastle to round out the competitive year, qualification for the 2025 WKC World Championships in Niagara, begins in March.