KARATE champions have won the Evening Star-sponsored Achievement Award at Ipswich Caribbean Association.The trio of town winners received the trophy at a Golden Jubilee reception, at the association's club in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich.

KARATE champions have won the Evening Star-sponsored Achievement Award at Ipswich Caribbean Association.

The trio of town winners received the trophy at a Golden Jubilee reception, at the association's club in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich.

The audience heard they have all been members if ICA for more than a decade.

World champion Darin Pack, 21, of Andros Close, was joined by European champions Leonie Kersey, 19, of Romney Road, and Milo Hodge, 24, of Wilberforce Street.

The award marked their year's outstanding achievements, and was presented in front of dignitaries including the high commissioner for Guyana, Suffolk mayors, the county's high sheriff, crown court judge John Devaux, and Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks.

New Ipswich mayor Richard Risebrow said attendance at the jubilee event: "shows the diversity of our community," and recalled the days when ICA's predecessor, the Ipswich and District Community Relations Committee - was founded in Bramford.

A portrait of the Queen by Nigerian-born artist Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy was unveiled.

Chinwe told how she practised curtseying as she waited for her royal subject to arrive for a sitting at Buckingham Palace, only to realise she was probably being filmed by cctv.

She said: "A bust of the Queen was done by the first black artist, another Nigerian, in 1957.

"That gave a lot of youngsters pride and enthusiasm to get involved in the arts.

"45 years later, I am the next black artist to paint the Queen. I think that's a long time. Maybe this time the optimism in children will carry on."