Karate king Liam O'Grady is aiming to make the step up on to the world stage after taking Europe by storm.

The 19-year-old York fighter was a member of the three-man England team that returned from the recent European Junior Championships in Switzerland with a bronze medal.

Having been in the national Under-21 squad for two years, O'Grady has now set his sights on the World Championships, which take place in the Czech Republic next October.

He took up karate when he was 11 years old and is a member of the York Kenshinkan Karate Club, which trains twice weekly at Canon Lee School.

Earlier this year, O'Grady, of Stockton Lane, won a bronze medal at the Karate Union of Great Britain tournament in Birmingham and followed that up with a silver at the Northern Region Championships held in Barnsley in October.

That display earned him a place in the team for the European Championships.

After his great performance in Switzerland, he won bronze in the kata (demonstration non-fighting event) at the prestigious Nottingham Open.

The star of the show at Nottingham was ten-year-old Woodthorpe Primary School pupil Kimberley Walker, from Foxwood.

She won the children's kumite event and received the award for the best under-12 competitor.

Her York Kenshinkan Karate Club team-mates, Adam Simpson, Mike Smith and Jamie Conyers, who hold a combination of purple and brown belts, were runners-up in the team kata.