KAI Barton-Cottrell may only have been grappling for eight months but he’s already made his way to the very top after he won the world championship title at the weekend.

The 11-year-old from Grimethorpe trains out of Renowned Martial Arts but only took up the sport after his latest birthday.

But since then he’s gone from strength-to-strength, winning dozens of gold medals.

He won the world championship title in NoGi having competed in the Elite World Championships in Wolverhampton last weekend.

His mum, Danielle, told the Chronicle: “He asked to start grappling on his 11th birthday but before that we’d always been dead against it because we just saw it as kids fighting - but it’s so much more than that.

“It teaches him a lot about discipline and respect.

“His behaviour has totally changed since he started.

“Within five weeks of him starting he went into his fist competition and he didn’t do very well but he’s kept on coming back.

“Since then he’s competed almost every weekend.

“He’s racked up 83 wins, 38 gold medals, 11 silver medals and seven bronze.

“He’s been against kids that are ten kilos heavier than him and some have been 15 years old.”

Kai is confident when competing, but his mum admits she does still get nervous.

She said: “He’s so confident now going into each competition.

“I still get really nervous.

“He’s always aiming for gold and he gets upset if he doesn’t get it.

“But nine times out of ten he does it so his confidence is just through the roof.”