A 15-year-old boy has earned the title of world champion in the World Karate Federation’s (WKF) category of Cadet Kata for 14-to-16-year-old males.

Thomas Klemz, of Fordingbridge, has taken the lead with 105 points above runner-up Izan Lopez Tomas of Spain.

The Burgate School pupil has been high in the global rankings for years, listed as number two in the under-12 category in 2021, and having won gold last year in the 14-to-15-year-old Cadet Kata category in the 10th Commonwealth Karate Championships.

Kata is a martial arts discipline involving choreographed movements practised alone. Due to its nature as a solo performance, competitions were able to continue through the pandemic, during which Thomas recorded his katas on video and sent them to referees of the WKF around the world.

His new title does not come as the result of just one competition. The WKF’s ranking works on a system of points earned across all competitions held by the federation.

Thomas holds 1,790 points, gained from 25 wins across eight competitions over the past year-and-a-half.