Six Irish kick-boxers won medals - three of them gold - at the world championships in Birmingham at the weekend. The gold medal winners were Nicola Corbett from Lucan, Sally McArdle from Dundalk and Roy Baker from Dublin.

This was Corbett's third title and Baker's second. Corbett is a model and McArdle a presenter with RTE's children's sports programme, The Grip. Baker works in the accounts department of The Irish Times.

Michelle Curtis, a student from Dublin, won a silver medal, while bronze winners were Ian Kingston, a production manager from Cork, James Boylan, a carpenter from Carrickmacross and Colm Kenna, a bricklayer from Dublin. Kenna, who won two bronze medals, making it a total of seven in all for the Irish, is a brother of Republic of Ireland full back Jeff.

The sport has three separate disciplines namely, full contact, semi-contact and light contact. The Irish medals were won at a variety of these disciplines. In all, some 46 countries from five continents were represented.

The controlling body of the sport, the International Amateur Kick-Boxing Sports Association, to which the Republic of Ireland body is affiliated, is hoping that kick-boxing will be included as a demonstration sport in the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.

Roy Baker, the senior member of the Irish team, was delighted with the team's results. "It was great to be in a medal position so often in the championships and we certainly made a big impression. It was tough going at times, but we supported each other well and we got the rewards."