World Championship Success for Three Evolution Kickboxers

The WAKO Kickboxing Junior and Cadet World Championships 2022 were held on the week of the 1st of October to the 9th of October in Jesolo, Italy. After successful selection for a place on the Great Britain Team, three young kickboxers from Evolution Martial Arts were competing at this event. Emily Gregory, 17, Mackenzie Warrant, 16, and Emily Greatrix, 14, had the opportunity to represent their country at these World Championships.

Evolution Martial Arts representatives at the Airport

All three of the athletes from Evolution Martial Arts fought fantastically. Emily Gregory won a Bronze Medal in the Female Team Event for Team GB which is a phenomenal achievement. At the Junior World Championships this year there were 2624 athletes from 56 countries from around the world. Great Britain finished in 3rd place overall on the medal tally after winning 24 golds, 22 silvers and 21 bronze medals.

Emily Gregory, Mackenzie Warrant and Emily Greatrix representing Evolution Martial Arts at the Junior World Championships 2022

Monday 3rd of October was the first day of the competition and the preliminary rounds. Mackenzie Warrant was fighting in the first round of his category which was the Junior Male -69kg Light Continuous Fighting. In the first round, Mackenzie came up against a strong competitor from the Czech Republic. The fight was intense and very close throughout although it was the Czech Republic athlete who came away successful and moved into the next round of the championships.

Tuesday 4th of October saw two of our athletes, Emily and Emily, take to the tatamis in their divisions. Emily Greatrix fought in the Older Cadet Female -60kg Point Fighting and in the first round she came up against a very strong competitor from Ireland. Emily fought fantastically but it was the Irish fighter who progressed to the next round and eventually became the World Champion in that division.

Next to take to the tatamis on the Tuesday was Emily Gregory in her categories of Junior Female -70kg Point Fighting and Junior Female -70kg Light Continuous. In the light continuous, Emily fought against an athlete from Canada. The fight was close throughout, but the Canadian fighter used her height advantage and although Emily fought very well, it was the Canadian who progressed to the next round. In the Point Fighting, Emily came up against a competitor from Italy. After an intense fight between the pair which was brilliant to watch and it was Emily who came out on top having won the fight 15-13 to progress into the Quarter Finals of the division.

Wednesday 5th of October was the day of the Quarter Finals at the Junior World Championships. This meant the Quarter Finals for Emily Greatrix in the Older Cadet Female -60kg Light Continuous category and for Emily Gregory in the Junior Female -70kg Point Fighting category following on from her success in the previous day.

Emily Greatrix fought against a competitor from Spain, where Emily gave everything and fought very well. The fight was extremely close which ended in a split decision unfortunately in the favour of the Spanish athlete who went on to win a silver medal in the category. Emily Gregory fought against an athlete from Ireland, once again Emily fought brilliantly but it was the Irish competitor who progressed to the semi-final.

However, all was not over yet for our Team GB representatives from Evolution Martial Arts as Emily Gregory was selected to fight in the Team Event for Team GB. This is an event where each country selects four fighters to fight in the Female Team Event were each athlete fights and the score is accumulated at the end. So on Saturday 8th of October, Emily and her Team GB team-mates fought in the Junior Female Category. In the first round, Team GB faced Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Team GB had an extremely strong performance and won to progress to the quarter final. Here, they faced a Team from Ireland where an exciting fight finished with a victory for Team GB and they progressed into the Semi Final of the Female Junior Team Event. In the semi final, the GB Team faced the home-nation team of Italy. First on from the GB Team was Emily where she fought fantastically to give a strong lead. The fight was dynamic but it was the Italian Team who won by just a one point lead. Team GB were very proud of their bronze medal in the Female Junior Team Event.

Emily Gregory and the Team GB Junior Female Team achieving a World Bronze Medal

At Evolution Martial Arts, the coaches could not be any more proud of our three amazing young athletes for their performances at the highest international level of the WAKO Kickboxing World Championships. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to this point and we cannot wait to see them improve even more! Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported these three with donations, words of encouragement and in their training, and to our sponsors Grimme UK Ltd and Plug Me In.

Team GB after the WAKO Kickboxing Junior and Cadet World Championships