East London Life

The Paragon Gym in Spitalfields brought home an unprecedented 5 Golds and 2 Silvers in the Kickboxing British Open Championships recently.

WAKO, the worldwide governing body of kickboxing, held its British Open Championships on Saturday 17 February at the Hadden Leisure Centre in Nottingham and fighters from all over the UK turned up to compete in the annual championships.

Paragon Gym, a kickboxing and boxing gym in Shoreditch, were represented by some of their members and came away with a record 3 Gold medals and 2 Silver medals - the best result in Paragon’s 10 year history. Andrew Wright retained his title of British Full Contact Champion (-81kg) for the second year.

Also taking British titles were John Lawson in the Full Contact -63.5kg, division and Stuart Lawson in the Full Contact -67kg. Perhaps the most notable achievement of the day was by Audi King, who won 2 Gold medals in the Men’s Full Contact -71kg and Men’s Light Contact -69kg, fighting in over 15 bouts throughout the day and going straight from the final of one into the other and still being triumphant. Tyfun Fehim, one of Paragon’s newest instructors, made an impressive debut at the Championships and will be a name to watch in the coming year.

Not to let all the boys have the fun, two of Paragon’s female members also competed and both won Silver. Instructor Hazel Gale, competing for the first time at the Championships, won a Silver Medal in Women’s Full Contact (under 70kgs) division and Lydia Durkin, an instructor at the gym for more than 5 years and last year’s Light Contact British Champion, also took home a Silver medal in Women’s Full Contact (under 60kgs).

Paragon Gym, located on Boundary Road in Shoreditch E2 was founded 10 years ago by brothers John and Stuart Lawson. John Lawson is a 4 time Professional Full Contact World Kickboxing Champion and Stuart is a WAKO Light Contact World Kickboxing Champion and between them have trained fighters to national and international standards.

Paragon offers kickboxing and boxing classes for all levels (not just those wishing to compete) in either private or group tuition. For more information, visit their website or call 020 7256 0990. More photos of the event are available here.
[Thanks to Tanith Winter for submitting this story — If you have any east London news, please feel free to submit it as well.]