GRIMSBY teenager Cheyne Phillips has qualified to compete in two events at this summer's World University Karate Championships.

The 19-year-old Fix N' Kiks member will travel to Podorica, Montenegro, on July 15, to represent the Cleethorpes club in kata and fighting categories.

Sensei Phillips (pictured) – who was forced to retire through injury when fighting for a bronze at the World Karate Championships in Morocco – booked his places in the competition by two podium finishes at the British Universities & Colleges Sport Games.

He faced high-quality opposition which included Reece Taylor, who became England's first gold kata champion at the 34th European Cadet

& Junior Championships, in February 2007.

And Taylor won the kata event in the BUCS at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, with Phillips taking bronze.

After the Cleethorpes fighter lost his chance of gold in the fighting event, losing to an unlucky fifty-fifty body punch points decision, he hit back to win another bronze.

Phillips also claimed three medals at the Cardiff Nationals.

Against unfamiliar Welsh opposition, he won silver in the individual competition, as well as bronze medals in open weight fighting and in kata.

And an Amateur Martial Association charity competition in Bradford added more medals to Phillips' haul – as the teenager brought back to North East Lincolnshire a gold from a team kumite, a silver in kata and a bronze from his individual kumite.

Fix N' Kiks are planning to launch a children's beginners course lead by two of the youngest English Karate Federation's recognised coaches: Cheyne Phillips, third Dan, and Karl Codd, second Dan. For more information, phone (01472) 602888.