Clitheroe Ribblesdale High School student wins gold in British Wrestling English National Championships

Charlie Vaughton (15), who attends Ribblesdale High School in Clitheroe, has just stepped up to the Under-17 age group (71kg) in January and this was his first competition in that category where he fought hard and took gold.

He also competed at his first international competition last December at the Helsinki Open Under-15 age group (68kg) where he took silver, an amazing achievement for his first international competition.

Proud mum Lyndsey said: “We are hoping to raise some sponsorship for him as for him to progress he needs to compete abroad and unfortunately British Wrestling is very underfunded.

“Charlie is attending the biggest wrestling competition in Europe, the Tallinn Open in Estonia on March 22nd, and then a UWW competition in Spain in April which would be a great opportunity for him to advertise a local business who would want to support an up and coming home grown British athlete.”

Charlie competes for Sharples Wrestling Club in Bolton which also had other significant results this weekend, and is a member of the Great Britain National Potential Squad.

He is now looking to attend Burnley College in September as a member of their elite sports programme, and has already been attending the Burnley College pre elite programme.

The British Wrestling Academy, Salford is the British Wrestling Head Office and one of the venues where its National Training Squad (NTS) prepares for international tournaments.