OKEHAMPTON’s Chantelle Tippett achieved her biggest victory to date when she won gold at the International Federation of Muay Thai Amateur Youth World Championships 2017, held in Thailand.

As British champion Chantelle, just aged 16, represent Team GB in the under 54KG female category aged 16-17 at the National Stadium in Bangkok. It was a proud moment for Chantelle, and her mother Lisa, as the young Thai boxer carried the Great Britain flag to lead out Team GB in the game’s opening parade.

In the tournament itself there were competitors from France, Thailand, USA, Russia, UK, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Turkey, Iran and Australia.

Chantelle fought her way to the final by beating Varvara Shestakova of Russia; in her second fight she defeated Valerie Sanchez of the USA to earn a place in the semi final. There she fought off the challenge of French girl Ines Pilutti Bombardieri before going on to beat Australian Britney Lee Dolheguy in the final.

It was a tremendous effort for Chantelle, who represents Chaos Gym in Okehampton and is trained by Steve Pender and Christi Brereton.

It was her biggest achievement to date, following an impressive junior fight record of more than 60 fights with only 12 losses and multiple English, British and European titles since 2012. Last year she started to fight at a professional level and is currently unbeaten after six fights and ranked at number six.

Her preparation began 15 weeks before the tournament. Her day began with a three mile run at 6am and two training sessions each day incorporating strength and conditioning, cardio, pad work and sparring. She was also revising for her GCSE exams.

Throughout the tournament, Chantelle had to weigh daily and stay below 54kg or she would have been disqualified from the tournament.

Chantelle told Times Sport: ‘This tournament has been my toughest challenge yet. Maintaining weight, training and competing in such heat is exhausting. But each of my fights were streamed live in the UK and I was determined not to let everyone down. After each win my social media went crazy and it just added to the pressure to bring home the gold.’

The ‘IFMAs’ is the largest and most renowned tournament in the world attended by elite athletes from 79 countries from all five continents. This year there were a record number of participants, with an increase of 30% on last year. The event is hosted by the Amateur Muaythai Association of Thailand under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The roster at IFMA Youth World Championships com-prises boys and girls from 10 to 17 years of age. They compete in divisions strictly separated by age and weight, wearing protective equipment.

It mirrored the Olympics with a spectacular opening ceremony and culminating in the presentation of the medals to the winning athletes.

Her mother Lisa Tippett added: ‘I was incredibly proud when Chantelle was chosen to carry the flag and lead Team GB into the stadium at the opening ceremony, but when she was presented with her gold medal and they played our national anthem, ‘I was completely over-whelmed.

‘It is a moment that I will never forget.’