A DETERMINED youngster from Prudhoe promised he would return to England as world champion kickboxer - and he didn‘t disappoint.

Owen Richardson (12), of Simonside, vowed to win gold at the World Unified Championships, in Benidorm, having clinched bronze at last year’s event in Italy.

And true to his word, the Highfield Middle School pupil was crowned the best in the world at under 47kgs in the Light Continuous (LC) mat category when he beat his Czech opponent in the final.

It capped a great championships for the member of Crawcrook’s Aiki Kickboxing as he claimed silver in the LC ring event, and then stepped in as a third man for Team England to help them to bronze in the teams event even though he represented Scotland during the championships.

Owen said: “I was proper jumping up and down when the referee raised my hand to say I’d won gold, and I started screaming!

”The first words I shouted were ‘come on’ and ‘get in’ because I was so pleased as I‘ve trained non-stop to get this far.

“It’s not a case of if I qualify for next year’s world championships but a case of when I do, and I’m aiming for all golds this time.”

Owen is confident he can go far and will be aiming to include the heavyweight class of K-1 into his schedule next year. The world championships medals are just rewards for his hard work, the gutsy youngster training three hours a day, six days of the week.

In addition to determination, he is also very disciplined and has already started a strict diet at a young age.

Owen said: “Stepping up the age category and weight category, I’m going to have to up my game and the training will get harder and the opponents tougher.”

His father Dan Nicholson accompanied Owen to Benidorm and was bursting with pride when he witnessed his son in action.

He said: “I was there and when you see him fight as well as he did, you can’t really put the feeling into words. We’re just so over the moon for him.”

Mother Melanie Richardson added: “We’re so pleased his hard wortk has paid off and he is getting recognition for it. I didn’t go so I was dying to get him home and give him cuddles!

“If he wasn’t doing so well he might have lost interest, but he is forever setting himself goals which he is looking to achieve or even better.”

There was no rest for Owen as he returned to training on Tuesday after arriving back late on Monday night.

He is next in action on December 5 at the Northern Area Title event in Barnsley.