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Nine-year-old Anneli Richards, from Fochriw, has impressed at the WUKF Championships in Crawley, where she represented Wales.

Anneli came tenth out of 23 competitors at the tournament on February 11, where she surpassed some brown and black belts in her category despite currently holding a lower purple and white belt.

Overall, the first-ever World Union of Karate-Do Federations (WUKF) Official British Open Karate Championships were a positive experience for Anneli and her family. 

Speaking about what was Anneli’s biggest competition to date, her mother Jayne Davies said: “She did extremely well. I think we were only .5 off reaching the top five.”

Competing at the K2 in Crawley was also memorable, according to Jayne. 

“It was the biggest arena we’ve been to,” she said, “It was brilliant.”

This, along with meeting competitors from places like Norway and seeing members of the Karate Wales team winning gold medals, has spurred Anneli on. 

With one competition coming up in just two weeks and another in four weeks, Anneli is already back training and focused on getting her brown belt.

“She loves competing,” said Jayne, “It never stops at all.”