WORLD Champion kickboxer Kyle Adam is in dreamland after he added the Scottish title to the world crown he won back in January.

The former Dollar Academy pupil has also been honoured by Glasgow University, where he is currently studying, with the prestigious Full Blue Honours for excellence in sport as well as being crowned as their ‘Sportsman of the year’, and he admits it has been a whirlwind start to 2015.

Adam told Advertiser sport: “For me, to achieve world champion status in the kickboxing circuit is just surreal because it is amazing to see all of my hard work in the gym paying off. So to then add the Scottish title belt to my accomplishments was fantastic.

“I had been hunting for this fight for a long time, and finally I got the opportunity to fight for the Scottish belt. I was ‘top of the bill’ which was also exciting as I had never done this before.

“I knew my opponent, and knew it was going to be a hard fight, however after winning the majority of the rounds I was crowned victorious, which was a fantastic feeling. It is great to get recognition from the University of Glasgow because the sponsorship from them allows me to get to and from training and fund the different equipment I need going into fights and competitions, so it is a massive help.

“The University also awarded me with Full Blues for excellence in sport, and later in the week I was awarded the Sportsman of the year 2014/15 so it has just been an amazing past few months and I am absolutely thrilled to get the recognition and support for my efforts.” The Dollar native only took up the sport at the age of 15 as a change from Rugby by going along and training with the coaches at the SMAC centre and he reckons it is the best decision he ever made.

The Tullibody gym has recently undergone an overhaul of its facilities and the new Scottish and World champion believes there is no better place in the country for him to train and hone his skills.

He said: “I train at the SMAC centre in Tullibody. The gym has recently gone under some fantastic renovations, which I believe makes it the best gym around.

“They now have a strength and cardio suite, as well as a brand new ring and cage for those members that want to compete and it has been invaluable to my training. It is no accident that the gym produces some great talent across the board with members fighting abroad and winning gold medals regularly, and this talent is only going to grow with the new facilities available.

“I would like to especially say thanks to the coaches there; Adam Paterson, Gary McGuire and Jeremy Haslam, who have put a lot of time and effort into making me the kickboxer I am today.” The 20-year-old, who currently trains out of the renowned Scottish Martial Arts Centre (SMAC) in Tullibody, now intends to focus on his studies for a spell, but admits he does have his sights set on capturing the Celtic title later in the year.

Adam added: “The next stage for me is to concentrate on University for a while, I have achieved what I wanted this year already, and anything else is now a bonus. Once the University semester has finished, I will then start training seriously again and set my sights on the Celtic title. That should be a good challenge for me to focus on.”