Four fighters from a Neath Abbey martial arts club are pulling on the Wales colours at the ITF Taekwon-Do World Cup in Benidorm this week.
The Mains Martial Arts Academy team are up against 2,681 athletes from 57 countries at the championships, which run until Sunday 4 October, according to the club.
Three of the four have already won medals at European level.
European medallists from Neath Abbey on the world stage
Jacob Wyatt heads into the World Cup as a European champion, with a European silver medal to his name as well.
Betti-Mia Aprea is a European silver medallist and Ocean Ferron-Hicks has European bronze.
For Kelsey Davies, Benidorm is her first major international championship.
The team is coached by the club’s founder, Lauren Main, who is also the Welsh national ITF team coach.
Lauren Main: ‘They’ve already achieved something extraordinary’
“Taking four athletes from our academy in Neath to compete at the World Cup is an incredibly proud moment,” she said.
“To see athletes who train every week in Neath Abbey competing alongside athletes from 57 countries shows just how far they have come. Whatever the results, they’ve already achieved something extraordinary.”
She said the trip “would not have been possible without the support of our Mains Martial Arts families, sponsors and the wider local community”.
“Every contribution has helped our athletes reach the world stage and we are incredibly grateful.”
From a Neath Abbey club to the World Cup in ten years
Mains Martial Arts opened in 2016 and teaches taekwon-do, kickboxing and fitness to children and adults of all abilities.
It is the latest Swansea Bay martial arts club to send fighters to a world championship, after Team Wales came home from Rhodes with 12 golds in 2024.
Like Llanelli’s world kickboxing champion Tennessee Randall, who bag-packed in supermarkets to pay for her tournaments, the club leans on local backing to get its athletes abroad.
More about the club is on the Mains Martial Arts website.
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