17 September 2015 Update: Our Girls No Limits The event “Our Girls No Limits” was conceived of following the “Manchester Girls Can” campaign and was conceived of by the Kru of the Great Kings (Muay Thai) Fight Club, known as “Great Kings”, to promote greater female participation in combat sports. The significance of the Great Kings Fight Club is that they have produced and continue to train a number of female champions who have achieved title wins at every level in Muay Thai, including a junior world champion and junior world silver medallist. The event comprised of both competitive bouts and non competitive play in a public event. The event attracted participants from Manchester, Birmingham, Kettering, Newcastle, Milton Keynes and London and was supported by the WKA governing body, which provided the officials for the competitive elements of the event. On the day there were 26 bouts of which three were competitive title challenges under the auspices of the WKU and WKA. The non competitive bouts were a huge success in that of the majority who were playing for their first time indicated that they would continue to play in the sport with the expressed hope of competing in the very near future i.e within the next 6 months. The competitive bouts were a huge inspiration as two girls from Newcastle and Kettering competed for a Junior English title. The bout was won by the girl from Kettering after a thrilling draw and dramatic extra deciding round.
Local interest was maintained by the battle for other English honours between two Manchester girls, one of whom is MCA’s own Katie Boyle who trains at Great Kings. Katie demonstrated great skill and sportsmanship in a technically dominating performance to win in front of a strong home support. Katie has had great support from MCA in recent years and was supported financially in 2014 to ensure she took up her place with the WKA England team in Italy where she became junior world silver medallist. Katie achieved many titles and positive comments to become a great role model for junior members of the Great Kings team. We hope that this relationship between MCA and Great Kings develops to create many more Katies and increase the opportunities for all of their students to enable them to participate in a sport that imbues confidence and discipline on the part of its practitioners.