TWO students from the Scottish Martial Arts Centre (SMAC) in Alloa have been selected to represent Scotland at two of the biggest international Kickboxing Championships later this year.

Alloa native Dylan Christie has been selected for the Scotland team who will head to Italy for the European Championships in April while team mate Sean McGill has qualified for the World Championships in Italy to take on the very best in the sport at the World Championships in October.

Both athletes learned their trade right here in the Wee County thanks to the expertise and training from the SMAC coaches Adam Paterson and Gary McGuire who are former world champions in their own right.

With so many of these international events being held abroad, the coaching staff at SMAC have created a fund to help support the cause and pay for their students to travel abroad for competitions.

Christie has been training with the elite squad for the past few months but was only confirmed in the team SMAC coach Adam Paterson says the two boys deserve their shot at glory after a lot of hard work to get where they are and he hopes their success can inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Paterson said, “I’m extremely proud of the lad’s both have shown tremendous perseverance and discipline in order to get to the level they are at, and now the rewards are starting to show. Its not easy to get into a national team for any sport and the martial arts are no different, “The boys are required to get to blackbelt level, which takes over five years if done properly, before they are even allowed to trial for team places so it’s a huge achievement. We’re looking forward to continued success with these two and we are also excited about the next generation also coming through the ranks.” The centre will be hosting a number of fundraising events in the coming weeks and months to help raise much needed funding for the boys so to keep up to date with all the events or to get involved join SMAC on facebook at www.facebook.com/scottishmatialarts.centre or for more information check out the website at http://www.smac-online.co.uk/