MEMBERS of a South Lakeland judo club emerged victorious at a county championship competition.

Burneside and Staveley Judo Club took a squad to Carlisle to compete in the County Kata Championships and returned with an impressive haul of eight gold medals and five silver medals.

This set of results continues the club's long standing tradition of producing championship winning performances under the expert guidance of coach John Barton.

A kata championship sees pairs of competitors learn a synchronised set of moves and repeat them in front of a panel of expert judges who are looking for high levels of control and application.

In this case, the judges were Dave Reveley, Angela Brown and Dale Fenwick who have around 15 World Championship titles between them.

The gold medals were won by the pairings of Sylvia Barton and Gillian Elliott, the husband and wife team of Gillian Elliott and Nik Elliott, Emma Dixon and Robert Heaton as well as Alex Swanson and Kate Mathews.

Coming home with silver medals on their chests were Sylvia Barton and Lucas Helaine Watson as well as Sam Parkinson and his partner, 12 year old Nathan O'Sullivan.

These results are the culmination of six months of hard work for the competitors, who have practiced kata for up to four hours a week during that period as well as focussing on other, more fight-based elements of judo.

Senior coach John Barton, 63, founded the Burneside and Staveley Judo Club after arriving in Kendal from Scotland 30 years ago.

He spoke of his pride at his club members' achievements.

"This is the first year we decided to knuckle down and go for it," said John.

"It was quite a shock to find out we were as good as we were because I didn't expect so many people to come back with medals.

"I'm chuffed that we managed to produce people of that standard."

Work is already underway for the national competition taking place in St Albans on March 1.