FORMER Ilkley Grammar School Laura Beardsmore has retained her world title at the Aikido World Championships in the United States.

Beardsmore won her sixth consecutive world individual title while competing in San Diego, a feat never before achieved in the history of the sport.

The competition saw a 16-strong GB team travel to the Worldwide Sport Aikido Federation (WSAF) event.

Beating strong Japanese competition throughout the individual event, Beardsmore found herself in the final against her prodigy, 22-year-old Morgan Murphy, also from Team GB.

Morgan had beaten previous world champion Natuley Smalle in the semi-final to have a personal best run at a world championships, however Beardsmore proved too strong in the final, throwing Murphy and finishing the fight winning 9-3 at the final bell.

It was a historic day as Smalle took the bronze leading to Britain's first ever one, two, three in an individual randori event.

In 2011, Beardsmore won her first individual world title in London, followed by two more in Japan (2013) and Australia (2015). This put her in the record books as no competitor had ever won three individual world titles in the history of the sport.

In 2017, the first WSAF world championships took place in London. The WSAF is a new world governing body for Aikido and has been set up to provide a platform for open and fair competition with a goal to encourage the amalgamation of all international competition.

At this competition, Beardsmore won her fourth individual world title.

Just two weeks after this competition, to ensure Beardsmore was undisputed champion of the world she travelled with the British team to Akita, Japan, to compete in the World Championships hosted by the Japanese Aikido Association (JAA), where she won her fifth individual title.

This gold medal completed Beardsmore’s three gold medal haul for the 2019 championships in San Diego, as she had been part of the winning mixed team in the Kongo Dan Taisen Event and also winning gold in the women's team, alongside compatriots Murphy and Smalle beating the top Japanese side at the event.