Pint-sized dynamo Phoenix, 6, and Trisha, a mum who got hooked on karate after dropping the kids off for training, topped the class as students from two Maitland martial arts schools came home with a swag of titles from the recent World Cup and Australian titles.

Phoenix collected his impressive champion’s belt in the sumo category at the world cup and won the Australian title in the same category and bronze in sword combat and point and continuous sparring.

Trisha won her World Cup title in the point sparring and followed it up with the Australian titles in the point sparring and continuous sparring as well as finishing third in sumo and clash sparring. 

The two students at Kirkwood’s Institute of Karate are now preparing themselves for the world titles in Florida in July, 2018.

Trisha said it was incredible to think she held a world title after becoming hooked on the sport after she enrolled her children and started dropped them off for training.

“I started off dropping the kids at classes once a week and soon enough I was going three times a week myself,” she said.

“The kids still come but I’m here more often than they are.”

Three other Kirkwood’s students had top five finishes at the world cup with Timothy Hopkins third in sword combat and continuous sparring. He won silver in continuous sparring at the Australian titles.

Alizabeth Fenn, 8, won World Cup silver in clash sparring and was fifth in sword combat and point sparring. She was third in sumo at the Australian titles and had two top four and two top five finishes.

Jaxen Fenn, 5, was fourth in clash sparring at the world cup and had three top-five finishes. He collected gold in sumo and point sparring and silver in clash sparring and sword combat at the Australian titles.

Two students from Guy’s Karate School also became Australian champions and collected a silver and bronze medals at the World Cup event in October.

Luke James, 13, won his first Australian title in point sparring and collected silver in traditional forms and sword combat after earning a silver and two bronze medals at the World Cup event in October.

His younger brother Daniel won silver at the world cup.

“It was very exciting to win an Australian title. I was a bit nervous but settled down quickly,” Luke said.

Travis Bryant, 12, won gold in self-defence in his age division combining with Luke in the event. He also won bronze in sumo.

At the world cup Bryant collected a silver and three bronze medals.