A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolboy from York, who took up kickboxing after being attacked in the street, is well on the way to getting to the world championships in Italy.
As The Press reported back in May, Bradley Headington from Strensall started kickboxing after an incident back in 2014, when as a seven-year-old, he was attacked by a group of young teenagers no more than 300 meters from his front doorstep.
His mum, Lorraine, said the incident had a profound effect on Bradley and left him not wanting to play outside for almost a year.
Shortly after the incident, Bradley joined Long’s Blackbelt School in Haxby, now MA4U. He started with once-a-week sessions training under current co-owner Nicki Pratt and soon discovered it was something he enjoyed and was good at, so the weekly sessions increased.
He is now a 1st Dan Blackbelt and trains at the Thorpe Arch school in Wetherby four - six days a week under Jack Rhodes a semi-pro K1 fighter and Kay Calvert the schools boxing coach.
After competing in the World Kickboxing Organisation (WKO) English open, he was invited to try out for the WKO-GB squad, of which he is now part.
Bradley has the opportunity to represent WKO-GB in the Unified World Championships in Italy at the end of October this year, with over 40 fighting organisations all taking their best fighters being part of the championships.
Bradley and his family have been frantically fundraising to get him to Italy. With an estimated cost of around £3,500, for the trip Bradley wanted to raise £1,000 of the total himself by virtually completing the 2,168 route from John O Groats to Lands' End and back by running, walking and exercise bike and he is currently at £665 with £335 to go from his target.
His mum, Lorraine, said: "Over the last few months since his last story in the paper Bradley has competed in a number of competitions and fight nights. He has also completed the first part of his challenge to complete the route from Lands' End to John O Groats and back, he travelled to Liverpool and had a boxing match which he dominated and walked away with the win.
"He has also competed in WKO British championships where he entered three categories two of which were new to him and came away with two silver medals."
"He then went to WKO World championships and entered six categories, two of which were also new to him and he came away with two gold medals and four silver medals. Currently Bradley is placed first in three categories: sport boxing, low kicks and light continuous. He is in second place in light contact and third place in full contact. And he has also got a fight coming up on October 1 at MA4U."
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