AN AUNT-AND-NEPHEW team from Irvine have won big at a major karate championship.

Heather Brodie, 16, and her nephew Robert Lynn, six, both won silver medals in kumite (freestyle fighting) at the English Karate Alliance Championships 2022 in Barnsley on Sunday November 13.

Heather has been practicing Shotokan karate at the Burakudo Karate Club in Prestwick for over ten years, starting when she was only four years old and earning a slew of trophies and medals since.

Inspired by his aunt, Robert joined the Burakudo Karate Club just three months ago and Sunday marked his first major competition.

Heather said: “I was gutted I didn’t get the gold because I got injured, but I felt good that I got silver and came home with a medal.

“I’ve done quite well in past championships, and I’ve got quite a lot of medals.

“I’ve got a trophy that was based on the total of points everyone in the category scored at the end of the year - that’s from when I was seven.

“My karate instructor’s trying to get us all to go to Bosnia for the World Championships.”

Heather has big plans for her future in karate - aside from potentially going to the World Championships, she will be competing in the Scottish Championships in Largs next July.

Both Heather and Robert will be going to Guildford in England to compete in a championship next March.

Heather’s mum and Robert’s gran, Janet Cobley-Brodie, accompanied the pair on Sunday.

She said: “Robert was absolutely blown away - he was so excited when he got silver.

“It was the first time he had been away, it was his first time out of Scotland, and it was his first time in a hotel. There was all the excitement of that and the excitement of the actual competition as well.

“He did phenomenal. The wee boy he was fighting from the English Karate Alliance, his coach actually came up to our coach at the end to say how well Robert had done.

“The whole family is so proud of him. 100 per cent.”

Four other club members also won medals at the English Karate Alliance Championships on Sunday.

The competitors were accompanied to the championship by Sensei Bill Hair, coach Dean Barlas, and referee Mike O’Callaghan.