Every year since 1971, Northern France has played host to many thousands of visitors from around the World who flock to Brittany for the Inter-Celtic festival of Lorient.

As well as a festival celebrating Celtic creative arts and showcasing music, theatre and dance, several Sporting contests take place.

For the first time, Karate was one of the Sports on display, with the hosts inviting the National Squads of Scotland, Ireland and Wales to Brittany.

The Welsh Squad included Vale Karate’s Gareth Reynolds and Natasha Paton.

Tasha, as well as being a member of the Welsh Ladies Kumite team, was also selected to represent Wales in the Individual Kata event.

The Karate competition took place at various venues over the weekend with Wales competing against Ireland on Friday.

Tasha beat her Irish opponent before also winning her team Kumite match as Wales beat Ireland 2-1.

The men followed suit, with an impressive 4-1 win.

On Saturday, Tasha couldn't quite manage a win over the Local Kata specialist from Brittany, though Wales managed an overall win.

Tasha again took the majority of the flags in Wales' final match against the strong Scottish Squad who nevertheless showed why they were favourites, with a narrow win over Wales and an overall Team event victory.

Due to an injury, Tasha was unable to contest the Individual Kumite competition on Sunday, but continued her impressive Kata exploits to secure an individual silver medal.

Vale Karate's Kumite Coach Gareth had returned from his wedding in New York only a few days previously and had trained little over the previous weeks. Still jet-lagged, his expectations weren’t high.

He had beaten his Breton opponent 7-0 and had been winning 2-0 versus Scotland only to see his opponent come back to secure a 4-2 victory.

However the Individual Open event saw Gareth hit his stride with three wins to set up a final against fellow Welshman Dean Draper.

As this was an Open event; Gareth, who fights in the Under 67Kg category was giving away a great deal of weight to heavyweight Dean.  

Nevertheless, Gareth showed why is regarded by many as Wales' Number One with a 7-4 win to take the Celtic Cup individual Open title.