Inside a matter of months, a martial arts club are already hitting some lofty heights.

Ashford’s Kojin-Kai Karate Club have already enjoyed global glory, winning a glut of medals at last month's WUMF World Karate Championships in Crawley.

The club are led by head instructor Ryan Harden, who is supported by girlfriend Millie Knight - a multi-talented four-time Paralympic skiing medallist.

“In class, we really never spoke about medals,” revealed Knight. “We just wanted to make sure the kids were happy, confident and proud of their own performances.

“From my background, having worked with quite a few amazing sports psychologists, that’s always been my ethos and mindset. Concentrate on the performance and the results will speak for themselves.

“They did. We’re so unbelievably proud.

“As a club, we’re fairly young. We only went independent about six months ago.

“We started with maybe only six kids in the club and, now, we’ve had nearly 20 people, competing at a World Championships six months later.

“It’s been an absolute whirlwind but what an amazing journey so far.”

Overall, Kojin-Kai Karate Club took more than a dozen students to Crawley.

Canterbury-born Knight, just 26, said: “We took 19 students from our karate club.

“They all competed in various different categories, relating to their ages. We really went into the championships not expecting anything.

“For some of our kids, it was their first big experience of a competition and tournament at that level. We had, age-wise, from five all the way up to veterans.

"We just really wanted them to enjoy it, have a good time and come away with a positive experience and, hopefully, to inspire them to keep performing and competing.

“The kids had done their absolute best in the build-up, with some of them juggling their 11-plus exams, school entries and new schools.

“So, they had a lot to deal with outside of karate. The first person we had on who was competing the moment it started, she won a bronze medal.

“That then sort of snowballed into the club winning 12 medals, which was brilliant.

“There were quite a few tears shed - in a good way!

"I was so proud.”

But the medals themselves were more of an added bonus for Kojin-Kai Karate Club.

“It was remarkable,” Knight said. “Regardless of the medals, I was so proud of our kids, just with the way they supported each other.

“We even had some students come up for the event, who weren’t even competing, to come and support.

"It gives me goosebumps, thinking about it.”

While Kojin-Kai Karate Club has taken over the lives of Harden and Knight, they have few complaints.

Knight noted: “It’s our absolute passion.

"It’s something we talk about, think about and do, really, 24/7. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Knight has already achieved plenty in her sporting career, although she relished the chance to turn her hand to coaching.

“It’s the best bit,” she said.

“I’ve competed all my life - but nothing even vaguely matches the drive and the motivation coaching gives me. I love it.

"There’s nothing more rewarding, especially when the students put in so much effort and are willing to train and willing to come to one-to-one sessions to train even harder.”

Head instructor Harden, Karolina Pedich, Aratrika Sharma and Dan Roberts finished as runners-up in their respective events at the WUMF World Karate Championships while Ryan Woollard, Nevaeh Walton, Advit Sharma, Manisha Daheley, Andy Wynn, Angela Buglia Mota, Brooke Gillett Munro and Sophie Blay won bronze medals.

Knight became a world champion in the taekwondo event.

But she said: “That was a bit stressful.

"My partner, Ryan, he’s the head instructor of our club, and we had quite a few of our students competing at the same time.

"That was the same time I was also competing - of course, that’s how it was going to go - so it was a very busy and logistically-challenging day.

“I was always going to be the one that was competing when we were most busy. I was trying to warm-up myself but, actually, my main priority was to warm up the children.

"I was trying to run between the karate mats and the taekwondo mats, trying to keep an eye out for when my category would be.

“My two categories that I was in, obviously, happened at pretty much the same time, too. I was doing one round of one category, going over to the other category, and doing a round of that one.

“I think I missed the medal presentation because I was actually competing in the other one. Winning a gold and a silver was pretty awesome.

“But I sort of said ‘Okay that’s lovely, thanks very much. Well done everyone. I’ve got to get back to coaching!’.”

It’s been quite the transition for former para-skiing star Knight, who won Paralympic bronze in Beijing in 2022 after collecting two silvers and a bronze four years earlier in Pyeongchang.

But she is simply ‘coach Millie’ in the martial arts world these days.

“I like to share some experiences but I haven’t actually told the children anything,” she revealed. “They don’t know I’m a Paralympic medallist.

“I haven’t said I can’t see, either - they might have worked that one out already - but I’ve never made a big thing about it.

"I assume some of the parents probably know but they’ve never made a big thing about it.”

Call 07596 900776 or visit karateashford.co.uk for more information on Kojin-Kai Karate Club.