Falcons’ coach Gordon Mitchell is WAKO kickboxing Veteran -74kg European champion after competing with Team GB at the 2014 WAKO European Championships in Slovenia.

Having won silver at the 2013 World Championships, Mitchell was a seeded fighter and didn’t fight until day three in the semifinals.

Here, he met Italy’s Paolo Zampieri in a close fight with only two points difference for the majority of the two rounds.

With Mitchell two points up, the Italian was forced to attack and ran into a great head kick from Mitchell.

After two more exchanges it finished 14-7 and Mitchell was through to his second WAKO final in two years.

The final pitted him against the reigning European Champion, Ireland’s Eamonn Breslin.

Mitchell caught his opponent with two unanswered defensive back-fists and with only 20 seconds left Mitchell was just a single point up when he landed his second head kick of the competition to finish 7-4 and become WAKO European Champion.

Mitchell’s success was part of a great campaign by Team GB, who set a new record for the team with eight gold medals, three silvers and eight bronzes, which includes four in the team fights where GB beat both Bulgaria and Germany before going out in the semi-finals to team champions Hungary.