HEREFORD Contact Karate Club struck gold five times in the English Contact Karate Association Light Continuous and Freeform National Championships in Birmingham.

And to complete an impressive tally for the club, team members also came home with two silvers and a bronze from the tournament which welcomed clubs from all over England and Wales.

Club instructor Simon Small led the way with two golds and regained the National Freeform title which he had won twice before.

Small also completed an historic full set by beating off strong competition from Chris Featherstone of Milton Keynes to take the Black belt +80kgs division title.

Small has now won ECKA national titles in the all four divisions of the ECKA syllabus, Full Contact, Semi Contact, Freeform and Light Continuous.

Youngsters Daniel Hayes and Jack Richards went to the championships determined to hold on to titles they had won the previous year and both were successful in their aim.

Twelve-year-old Daniel beat off much older competition to retain his title in the under-16 Freeform while Jack, in the boys' red-green belt +5'4" fought hard and convincingly held on to his title.

John Milward, forced out of last year's competition by a knee injury, gained some compensation for that disappointment in the over-35s open division by taking the gold.

Lindsay Neil, in the girls' purple-black belt -5'0" division, improved on last year's bronze to take silver this time around and there was silver, too for Emma Baker in the girls' red-green -5'4".

In the men's red-purple belt +80kgs category, Patrick Baker came home with a bronze medal after an injury caused by an illegal kick to his knee forced him out of his semi-final contest.