LOWER Gornal karate kid Jesse Wyman continues to enhance her growing reputation by bagging more medals in major competition.

She snapped up a silver medal after representing England at the recent Elite Commonwealth Karate Championships which took place at Birmingham University.

Jesse beat the Trinidad and Tobago representative 3-0 and then got the better of South Africa 4-0 and Cyprus 3-0.

That put Jesse through to the final where she lost out on a referee’s decision against her rival from Scotland after the contest had finished 0-0.

Jesse competes for the Tom Hickman Academy and Tom, a former World Junior Under-18 champion, said: “A referee’s decision is always going to be controversial, it’s all down to interpretation as to who they think was the most aggressive fighter.

“But there’s no doubt about it, Jesse is flying the flag for the club 100 per cent.

“She’s the first international in the club’s history. Although we’ve been going for three and half years now, we lost two of those years to Covid when we were unable to compete in any competitions'.

“However, we did our best to keep going, training on-line or outside. We never took a break

Jesse then competed for the Midland region in Luxemburg where she won gold in the Under-18's plus 59 kilo division.

She was accompanied in Luxemburg by fellow Hickman Academy prospect Hattie Jenkins who picked up a bronze medal in the Under-12 plus 40 kilos.

Hattie was also part of a Hickman Academy contingent competing in the Commonwealth Club Championships where she won a silver medal.

Club colleague Isabelle Melbourne and Grace Atkiss claimed bronze medals.

Tom Hickman, who runs the club alongside fellow coach and Republic of Ireland international Shauna Mullaney said: “We always look back on our own experience to try and put the youngsters on the right path”.