Yas Bellamy, Robert Davis, Rachel Whiting and Nic Kegge, of Kuk Sool Won of Eye, will be among thousands of martial artists to compete in the tournament in Houston, Texas.

"If we come back with a grand champion, I will be chuffed to bits," said the school's master Steve Whiting.

An estimated 2,000 Kuk Sool Won students from across the globe will compete in the world championships, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the Korean martial art.

Great Britain will be taking a team of 58 students to Houston, including 13 from Whiting's schools in Eye and Stowmarket.

The Eye school's best hopes for medals are former UK Grand Champion Davis, 21, and current Scottish, UK and European Grand Champion Rachel Whiting, 36.

The youngest member of the team is second degree black belt Yas Bellamy, 15, who has been given a grant and time out out her studies by her school, Archbishop Sancroft High, in Harleston.

The Eye quartet is completed by policeman Nic Kegge, who is a third degree black belt.

Steve Whiting, who founded the club in Eye in 1990, said there was great excitement within his group about the tournament

He said: "We've been having special training sessions on Saturdays and practicing every opportunity we get.

"They have been saving hard for months so they can go, while Yas has had a grant from her school, which is wonderful. Even those are who are not going, are getting right behind them and wishing them the best of luck."

The club fly out on Monday and will compete on the following Saturday and Sunday in a number of elements of the martial art, including forms, techniques, sparring, sword, staff and breaking.

Steve Whiting is a fifth degree black belt and will be competing with 200 of his peers to try to gain promotion to the next level.

The last time he took over a team from the UK was the world championships in 2002, in Korea, and chose to go again this year to mark the martial arts' 50th anniversary since it was founded by the Grandmaster In Hyuk Suh.