Aberdeen Muay Thai boxing coach Andy Rose has hailed his young athletes after they secured a place at the World Championships in November.
Seven athletes from the Granite Fight Factory will travel to Tuscany, Italy, later this year to represent the United Kingdom at the Worlds.
Leo Dale (8), Cooper Rataj (8), Jaxon Ritchie (10), Sam Duncan (11), Lola Gill (11), Zac Sim (14), and Rudy Da Silva (16) secured their place at this year’s major competition after winning their respective titles at the elite Sandee Intercontinental Open in Barnsley in April.
The event, where some athletes had to fight as many as three times in one day, doubled as qualification for the World Championships.
Rose took nine young fighters, including Jude Morrison, 7, and Tamara Addison, 11, to Barnsley and returned to the north-east bursting with pride at every single one of them.
He said: “It’s quite a big deal, a lot of the best fighters from over Europe travelled to England.
“We had three kids win there last year, but we entered a bigger team of nine this time and seven came away with wins in their categories – it’s impressive to get that many winners.
“Everybody is so proud because they all worked really hard in the six-week build-up to the show.
“Because there were so many of them fighting, there was a real buzz about the gym. They were all motivating each other every day and it paid off at the event.
“They all did themselves really proud, even the ones who didn’t win – they did amazing as well and should be so proud. They’ll come back stronger next year.”
With the World Championships to look forward to later this year, Rose is delighted with the consistent success his Muay Thai fighters are having.
In 2022, four Granite Fight Factory athletes – Da Silva, Sim, Duncan and Jack Robertson – won several titles which are recognised by official boxing federations.
Rose added: “I’m so proud as their coach, but so are the five or six others who coach them.
“We’re just so happy with what we’ve achieved, but we just need to keep the consistency going and build on what we’ve done over the last few years.”
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