Three Dunmow TKD students made the  trip to Cardiff for the Welsh Championships - with plenty of positives and success.

Hosted by the Tae Kwon-Do Association of Great Britain (TAGB), it was the second successive year that the club had sent three students - sisters Alyse and Ariella Dixon-Bellot, as well as Anish Malladi.

They were among 950 students from across the country with Ariella and Alyse both defending their titles in the girls' red belt sparring divisions.

For 11-year-old Ariella, her reign was ended by the girl who go on to claim the crown, but 10-year-old Alyse retained her title, and both won gold in the tag-team sparring.

That continued the girls' impressive record of winning gold in every national TAGB event in the last two years.

Anish was unfortunate not to medal but Dunmow instructor Matt Howard was keen to commend his young, nine-year-old student.

He said: "Anish is a lovely lad, full of energy and enthusiasm. Just like Ariella and Alyse, he has entered all of the UK mainland competitions for the past two years and takes part in patterns, sparring and tag-team sparring.

"He was in very large groups often against much taller boys and despite not medalling this time round, he has already put himself forward for two more competitions this month and I'm sure he will get his reward in the future."

This month will see the club sending a contingent to the British Taekwon-Do Council Championships, plus they have been invited to compete at the North Midlands event in Grantham.

They continue to run classes six times a week and more information can be found at www.dunmowtkd.co.uk