Aston leads from the front as fighters flourish in Flanders

Chris Aston, who runs Aston's Kickboxing Academy, won a silver in the grand champion open weight section at the Flanders Cup in Belgium as well as two further bronze medals at different men's weight classes.

The Flanders Cup attracts some of the very best fighters from around Europe and is seen as one of the most demanding competitions in the fight calendar.

And Aston said: "I was delighted to get on the podium in each of the three sections I entered."

He was not the only one to shine at the competition, which was held in Beveren, though.

The club took seven fighters over to tackle some of the strongest competition on the continent.

In the junior sections, Jake Lenton and Sam Heenan both secured bronze medals to take the club's medal tally for the event to an impressive five, and it could have been even greater but for some fine margins.

Aston said "I am genuinely delighted with the performance of my fighters.

"I can't overstate the quality of fighters who come to this competition and for my team members to perform as they did is a credit to them individually and to the club as a whole.

"Whether it was Jake and Sam fighting hard and securing podium finishes or my other fighters competing against far more experienced competitors, I am proud of each and every one of them"

He added: "Medals and podium finishes are of course a great achievement, but I also want to give credit to Mike Thomas who was incredibly impressive in his fights and only missed out on a podium finish by the smallest margin.

"Vince Dovey also fought very well against a fighter with years of competitions under their belt and should be rightly proud of his quarter-final placing.

"It was again only the smallest of margins between the fighters that denied Vince a podium finish himself.

"My two other fighters, Joanne Savage and Pete Savage , also fought extremely well. They were both up against fighters that had previous international victories, but both acquitted themselves very well and it will be valuable experience for them at future competitions.

"The club is rightly proud of its fight team and we now will take the experience from Flanders and use it in the preparation for the Bristol Open competition this month where we will face a number of the fighters we fought against in Belgium."

Aston's Kickboxing Academy is based in Castle Foregate. The club provides kickboxing and fitness classes for participants aged three-years-old-and-upwards.

Sessions run six days-a-week and Chris Aston can be contacted on 07854 857937 or via email at admin@astonskickboxing.co.uk for further information.