A mother and son duo of kickboxers from County Galway have both won medals at the World Kickboxing Championship in the United States this week.

Gina Casey and her 14-year-old son Cathal from Gort scooped bronze medals at the World Kickboxing Association’s World Championship finals in Orlando, Florida on Monday.

Gina, a special needs assistant at Gort Community School, and Cathal a second year pupil at the South Galway secondary school, both won the medals for Ireland competing in the ‘Light Contact Sparring’ category.

Cathal, who is competing in the 13-17 year olds sub 45kg category, didn’t progress in the ‘Point Sparring’ competition but still has a chance of another medal in the ‘Patterns’ category at the championships.

Cathal is a black belt in Taekwondo and Gina has a blue belt in Taekwondo. The pair began practicing martial arts three years ago in Labane and are now members of the Gort Taekwondo Academy.

“A mother from school told me about it and about three years ago I brought Cathal along and then just got involved myself. I always had a bit of an interest in martial arts and the opportunity to get involved just fell on my lap,” said Gina, speaking to the Tribune from Florida.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.