Inverness brothers to represent Great Britain at kickboxing World Championships after Aidan and Ciaran Lennan get call for Hungary
Aidan and Ciaran Lennan will represent Great Britain at the WAKO Kickboxing World Championships in Hungary later this year.
The week-long competition will take place in Budapest between August 24 and September 1, with the brothers competing in five categories between them.
They will be heading to Hungary on strong form, having bagged a number of medals at the GB International Open in Nottingham last weekend.
Older brother Aidan (16) won four gold medals – triumphing in the light contact and kick light under-19 junior section, as well as the senior men’s competitions at the same under-63kg weight.
He would also come away with three silver medals, just coming up a single point short in the senior men’s points category as well as in his bid to become the junior open weight grand champion.
Aidan’s third silver came in the senior men’s tag team competition, where he was paired with North West Warriors athlete Harvey Knowles.
The teenager, who is hoping to leave Charleston Academy this summer depending on exam results, also starred in the North v South 24-person battle, winning his fight and accumulating nine points as the north team claimed gold and he was also awarded a trophy for being fighter of the tournament.
Younger brother Ciaran (13), currently a pupil at Charleston Academy, was unable to compete in as many categories as he could not move up to the next age category, but he still earned a gold medal in the under-16s older cadets in kick light, silver in light contact and bronze in points.
For both brothers it will have served as a nice confidence boost ahead of returning to the world stage later this year.
They will each compete in the same categories as they did last time they were at the World Championships, and they are delighted to have secured their places in the 2024 squad.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get in, because selection was quite tight for me, so I was happy,” younger brother Ciaran said.
“I didn’t do so well last year, I wasn’t fighting right, so hopefully I can do better this time.
“I feel better in general this year. I’ve had a year of fighting against these boys I’m going to be up against.
“I’m quite short, so the boys I’m fighting are a decent bit taller than me. There’s nothing I can do about that to be fair, so I’ve had to work on moving around a bit more and being faster than them.”
Aidan continued: “Last year was our first year in these age categories, so we’ve got used to it.
“For me, I’m fighting in three rounds instead of two, so it’s all about your energy level.
“It’s also a lot harder – boys are a lot stronger and faster, they have more experience, so I have to train harder to keep up.”
Having picked up a barrage of trophies from the national and international stage over recent years, the bar could be set quite high for the Lennan brothers in Hungary.
They are certainly aiming high this year, looking to come back to Inverness as world champions.
“It’s a hard challenge, but for the male’s there has only ever been one person to get – they call it five golds, but it’s basically four,” Aidan explained.
“It’s where you win gold in the points, continuous, kick light, the teams event and then best fighter. That has been done once before, and I would really like to do that before I go into full contact in the ring next year.
“It happened something like 10 years ago, and it has never been done in juniors or adults. It was done in older cadets, which was two rounds, so it’s a lot harder to do it over nine rounds instead of six. Hopefully I’m ready to do that.”
On his own ambitions for this year’s World Championships, Ciaran said: “I just want to do what Aiden did, because last time he went to the Worlds he won both of his categories. I want to win both of mine this time.”
Being the younger brother by a couple of years means that Ciaran can tap into the knowledge and experience of Aidan when needed to help him reach his full potential.
Conversely, the older Lennan brother has found that he enjoys coaching, and regularly teaches a class at HMAC Inverness.
“I guess it’s helpful, he does try to help me whenever he’s not being mean,” Ciaran laughed.
“He’s been there, he’s older so he knows more. If I don’t know what I’m doing, he will, so he can sit in the chair and coach me if I need it.”
Aidan reasoned: “Teaching has been something I’ve liked to do for a few years now. Sometimes I’ve just been helping out, but that has put me on the track to be able to coach.
“It’s very different from fighting. You can’t just do something, you have to know the reasons why. Over time you see people improve, which is nice to see.
“I would say it has helped me in the ring, because I’m not just going in blind. I know how to set up my shots better based on what I’ve done before.”
Kickboxing has become both boys’ lives. Their calendars are worked around competitions, and they train with HMAC in the Highland capital as well as Wolfpack Martial Arts in Edinburgh, and attending GB-level sessions.
Just this summer, for example, they will both travel down to Telford in England for a GB camp before heading out to Greece in July for a training camp in preparation for the World Championships.
Thing could have been very different for the pair. Aidan was the first to step into the world of combat sports when he began boxing training as a young boy south of the border, but the travel for sessions became too disruptive to continue.
Then he was faced with a choice of kickboxing, football or swimming, and it is clear which one became the dominant option.
Upon moving up to the Highlands, Ciaran would join in too, and the duo have each gone on to earn a number of titles and medals.
“I don’t actually remember starting to be honest, I think one day I just decided to do kickboxing as my sport and start training, and now I’m here,” Ciaran reflected.
“At HMAC, it’s you go until the ref says ‘stop’ or ‘next round’, but at Wolfpack it’s more about scoring points.
“It’s good to have both of those different styles, and it’s helpful because we’re both going to be doing both of those at the World Championships.
“It’s quite helpful having somewhere to go. I don’t know where I would be without kickboxing – I could be doing anything.”
Aidan added: “It’s just my life. My whole life has been sports, and it’s not a bad thing – I want to do sports, it’s my favourite thing.
“It’s expressing yourself. It’s a martial-art, which is an art, so just as a painting expresses an artist’s feelings me fighting in the ring expresses myself.”
Ciaran’s next tournament will be the World Championships in Budapest, but Aidan will be heading to Hungary earlier than that for one of the biggest competitions in the world, the Hungarian Open World Cup, in June.
