WAKO World Championships: Tennessee Randall celebrates third world title

Randall’s father Leigh is a coach in the Great Britain set-up, as well as the owner and chief instructor at WKO Llanelli.

He says last month’s championships in the United Arab Emirates shows the future is bright for British kickboxing: “In my 10 years as a coach with WAKO GB this by far outshone every other tournament we’ve been to.

“This year we had nine fighters in the final on the mats, and out of those nine we created five world champions.

“It was a very successful venture on the biggest stage in the world.

“In the past we were producing maybe one world champion every two years, so to produce five in one week was very special.”

However, he was unable to watch his daughter compete in the final due to a timing conflict with one of the other British fighters he was coaching.

“Yeah that was a first for me,” said Randall.

“Although I’ve watched Tennessee win world titles before, on this occasion Tennessee was in ring three, I was on mat three, which was right opposite it.

Randall was coaching Lincolnshire fighter Harrison Martin.

“I’ve got to be honest, although I did give him 99%, I couldn’t give him 100% because I had one eye looking over at the ring to see how my daughter was doing,” he admitted.

“Good news, my daughter won and so did Harrison, so job done.”

Father and daughter would not get to celebrate together until later that day.

“I didn’t see her for two hours and that wasn’t in the sporting venue but in the supermarket,” Randall revealed.

“We walked in, looked at each other and it was emotional to say the least.

“It was a special moment, whether in the arena or supermarket, I was immensely proud of her, which I still am now.

“She’s determined and passionate. If you put those two traits together, I think that’s why she achieved so highly in her academics and her sporting life.”