Crewe schoolgirl celebrates Gold at Karate World Championships

Karate champ Grace Leigh is hard in training for her next competition after scooping a Gold in the WUKF Karate World Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Competing against athletes from all over the world such as Peru, Mexico and South Africa, the ten year-old Crewe schoolgirl emerged triumphant in her age division for kata.

Grace, a member of Cheshire Martial Arts Club, trains in Warrington with 9^th Dan Hanshi Paul Graham and competes nationally and internationally with the Shukokai-ShitoRyu Karate Alliance, (SSKA).

Grace is now back in the dojo and has her sights set on the WUKF European Championships along with her brother Josh, aged eight, which takes place in Sheffield this October.

Grace took up Karate in 2021 wanting to give it a go after learning that her mum Amanda, from Crewe, had done karate when she was younger.

Now Grace, a pupil at The Dingle School in Haslington, trains with her mum, brother and nan every week.

Amanda, who works at Mornflake in Crewe, said: “We are so proud of Grace – it was amazing to see everything come together for her after years of hard work and commitment to training.

“We are eternally grateful to Hanshi Paul for his training and support and to the SSKA for giving her the opportunity to represent her country competing in a sport that she loves.”

When not training, Grace is a keen musician – playing piano and saxophone.

To celebrate her success there was only one thing she wanted – a bearded dragon which she has named Miyagi.

He future hopes are to see karate return to the Olympics and to represent her country.