Epping and Bishop’s Stortford Taekwondo Club returned home from the TAGB Inter-club Championships in Hemel Hempstead with an impressive 18 medals.

The club, coached by Colin Mowatt, took 12 students to the invitational event and won nine gold medals, six silvers and three bronze.

Michael Barford clinched the gold in team patterns – which consists of a group of fighters performing a set of punches, kicks and blocks in unison.

The 44-year-old also won bronze in the individual middleweight sparring.

Angie Margrie, 37, completed a clean sweep of gold medals in all four of her events: team and individual sparring plus team and individual patterns.

Christine Abbott, 23, finished top in middleweight sparring, team sparring and team patterns and picked up the bronze in solo patterns.

Instructor Mowatt praised his club’s performance in the event, which also saw medal wins for Matt Howard, 45, Joe Howard, 16, and Dave Cogan, 48.

He said: “Coming home with such a large haul of medals shows all the hard work and training leading up to the event was well worth it.”

Mowatt also highlighted the club’s younger members, with 13-year-old Cerys O’Connor and Deana Bird both winning medals. Bird won two silvers in her first competition.