WELSHMAN Carlton Brick is starting an international sporting career aged 51 – and representing Scotland.

The university lecturer only took up taekwondo six years ago after taking his son Daniel, now 17, to classes.

“Daniel was about eight or nine when he started going to monthly classes and competing and I kind of thought, ‘well I’m here I might as well join in’ and I joined the club and I’ve progressed from there and people have recognised I was reasonably good at it,” said Carlton who is a black belt.

A former pupil at John Beddoes School, in Presteigne, Carlton has lived in Scotland since 2002 when he took a job teaching sociology at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley.

He has now been selected for the Scottish men’s team competing in the Veteran Gold category, for those aged 50-59 years, at the International Taekwondo Federation European Championships, which will take place in Rimini, Italy, from April 2 to 8.

“I have taken up taekwondo here and I train here, I suppose my ‘taekwondo career’ has all been in Scotland and I do feel quite proud I’ve been deemed worthy of being a member of the team.

“I have lived here a long time and I have an affinity to the place but in every other sense, including a sporting sense, I’m Welsh, football and rugby wise.”

While a pupil at John Beddoes, from 1978 to 1986, Carlton represented Powys at football and represented the school at football, rugby and athletics while he also played for Knighton Town.

But in his 40s Carlton, whose parents Rebe and Derick still live in Knucklas, felt he needed a new sporting challenge.

“I had given up football as I was getting too old and I had kind of started running but I didn’t enjoy it all, I didn’t have the mindset for it, and I was just looking for something to keep me fit and taekwondo was that thing as I’d been reasonably fit most of my life.”

Son Daniel, is also a black belt, and the pair learned the Korean martial art at the Steven Mclaren Martial Arts school in Helensburgh, near Loch Lomond. Carlton gained his 1st Dan black belt in 2016 and hopes to sit his 2nd Dan test following the European Championships.

Carlton has competed and won medals at national level as a coloured belt but the championships will be his first black belt competition and the first-time representing the Scotland team.

The form of taekwondo that Carlton competes in features less padding than worn by those who competed in the Olympics and competitors are marked for their technical ability but it is still a combat martial art.

“You take shots to the body and the head and it does hurt, it’s not meant to. It’s not about hurting the other person it is more about control and the ability to execute the technique but when you get people moving about in a rush it does hurt,” said Carlton.

The championships are self-funded and the club has a gofundme page and all funds raised will be used to support the team’s travel and hotel expenses for the duration of the championships, as well as participation costs in individual events. The page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/peak-performance-represents-scotland-at-the-euros