A 12-year-old girl from Bolton has become one of the youngest people in the UK to achieve a black belt in kung fu thanks to lessons from Zoom. Fatin Kylychbekova first started training in the martial art in 2017 when she was just seven years old but had to do it via video call when her family moved to Bolton in 2018 and Covid.
Dedicated and passionate about the craft, the talented Fatin used to train seven days a week when she lived in London. She was taught by world renowned trainer Shifu Mark Browne, 55, who has praised her for her wonderful achievement.
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Fatin who still travels to London for lessons every Sunday is believed to be one of the youngest participants in the UK to achieve a black belt, which she has said gives her 'a lot of pride and a lot of excitement.' Speaking about her journey and training, she said: "Back when we lived in London, I used to train seven days a week but when we moved to Manchester, we had to cut down because of Covid so I trained on Zoom.
"Then we started training seriously and now I go down to London every Sunday. I'll probably do kung fu for the rest of my life."
Now she has achieved her black belt, Fatin, a year eight student at University Collegiate School in Bolton, will start teaching other youngsters and passing her skills onto them.
She added: "It gives me a lot of pride and a lot of excitement. I felt very proud and a lot of enjoyment but I also felt a lot of relief.
"I had finally reached the final stage which has taken me a couple of years to get to this point but now I can carry on. I've not started teaching people just yet but I currently teach my little sisters and that's quite fun.
"Kung fu is just really fun and it teaches me good skills which I can apply and then pass onto others."
Fatin's dad Bilal Suleman, 44, has said that he and his wife Gulnaz Kylychbekova, 36, are 'very proud' of their daughter as she is 'so dedicated' to the sport.
Bilal, a construction project manager, said: "When she started, she stuck to the basics but in two months, she developed her interest in it and started going more.
"She was going training every day back to back and would be training around for hours a day, and she would never get tired. No matter what it took, we would take her to London every Sunday and first thing on a Monday morning, she would go to school and it was a very hard journey."
He added: "We are very proud of her and I am very overwhelmed by it. She is so dedicated to it and that makes me really feel so proud."
Fatin's trainer, Shifu Mark Browne, who has been teaching for 30 years, has said that she is the only student he has ever taught that has achieved a black belt at this age.
He said: "She's the first and only student I've had that has achieved a black sash at the age and I have been teaching for over 30 years - she's just absolutely amazing. Her mindset is of somebody who is of age and is not of the age that she is."
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