AN ANDOVER-BASED martial arts star has been crowned UK open champion at the KWON Kids Open Championships.

Connor Burdock, a select fighter for the Walworth-based Team Falcons, scooped the title with a top performance at the event, held in Birmingham.

The martial arts star won five tough fights in the advanced light contact section, digging deep to come out as the overall winner.

However, Connor wasn’t the only Falcons success story of the day as the nine-strong team scooped three golds, a silver and two bronze medals at the unique event, which aims to give young fighters a chance to gain experience and develop their skills.

Select fighter Sophie Nandan, in the intermediate points, started strong with a series of head kicks comfortably winning her way to the final after five fights.

Later in the advanced division Sophie had to up her skills to bounce back from an early loss to rack up enough points to reach the final.

Two finals and two wins saw her take two golds, for which she was awarded Falcon Fighter of the Day.

The third division of the day saw Kane Leach, Tom Kynaston, Kyle Schulze, Josh Poyser, Joe Taylor and Burdock all fighting in the intermediate points.

There were mixed results, many losing and some winning with the standard high, and the boys just missed out on medals but gained some very valuable experience.

In the intermediate light contact, select fighter Schulze showed slick movement to secure third place.

The coaches thought he showed some of the best fighting to date and is really improving.

Poyser and Burdock, also in the same division, had some great fights, losing out on close decisions.

Shaun McCormack, after only 12 months of training, fought well in what was only his second competition to beat more experienced and seasoned fighters.

A silver in the intermediate division set him up well for the novice section in which he dominated to take his first gold.

Alex Kynaston fought well in the girl’s advanced point fighting and although she only lost one fight out of five she could only secure bronze.

Yet it was a good result for Alex, who was returning from a long term injury.