Karate kids Rachel, Amy and Lisa Barker have a trip full of Eastern promise beckoning. The fabulous Barker girls, of Keat's Close, Rawcliffe Lane, York, have been selected for the Karate World Championships in Japan in 2000.

The four Barker sisters, from the left, Rachel,13, Amy 12, Lisa, 10 and six-year-old Alice with Wigginton Karate Club 3rd Dan Instructor Paul Wright

Rachel, 13, Amy, 12, both pupils at Joseph Rowntree School, and Lisa, ten, a pupil at Clifton Without Junior School, are all members of Wigginton Karate Club.

The girls have being getting their kicks from shotokan karate for just two years, but are already brown belts.

And the talented trio hope to have earned their black belts before the new Millennium.

The trip to the Orient will mark the girls' first representative honours and will provide them with a golden opportunity to mix with the very best.

But they are desperately in need of sponsorship to help meet the cost of their threefold Japanese trip.

Anyone willing to offer help can telephone the Barker family on 01904 642535.

The girls are certainly keen to keep their success in the family.

The youngest of the Baker girls, Alice, six, a pupil at Rawcliffe Infant school, took up karate with the Wigginton club earlier this year and is already said to be making great strides.

Meanwhile, York-born karate king Alan Foster led an England squad to glory and into the record books in the War of the Worlds Martial Arts Championships.

Foster, president of the Norton-based World Martial Arts Council, put together a team of coaches - including Geoff Rennison from York - and more than 60 competitors from around the country to take part in the championships at Groningen, Holland.

The English squad, competing in karate, kung-fu, jiu-jitsu and aikido and aged from seven to 40 years, were up against teams from all over the world.

After two days of competition, the English team, which took 44 individual trophies and three team trophies, were crowned world champions for the first time.

The squad has now been invited to other events in Greece, Germany, France and Holland again next April for the European Championships.

As reported in the Evening Press, Foster is hopeful of opening the first martial arts residential academy in Norton by Easter next year, offering three-year courses leading to HNC, HND, BSc and MSC in sports science.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.