JASON and Gary Downer are amongst the youngest karate black belt brothers in Britain.

And the Brighton and Hove siblings, ten and nine respectively, achieved the feat with the help of Japanese language tapes at bedtime for EIGHT months.

The Sama Organisation pair, who are pupils at Goldstone School, took their grading at the Orchard School, Worthing.

Gary said: "We needed to learn Japanese phrases to do the grading. We do Wado-Ryu which is a Japanese form of karate. Going to sleep listening to the tapes for so long helped us a lot."

But Jason insisted with a smile: "English is still our best language!"

The dynamic duo had to undergo an hour and a half grading, going through ten katas, pairs, knife defence and stamina while talking Japanese.

Gary said: "It was hard and difficult to concentrate for so long but it feels good to know we are two of the youngest set of brothers to get a black belt. It's great."

He admitted taking up the sport four years ago has calmed him down. He said: "I used to get into fights in the school playground, but not now."

Gary had a football trial with Crystal Palace and scored three goals in four games two months ago.

He said: "I couldn't stay for the whole trial because we had to go on holiday but I prefer karate to football anyway. It's so exciting."

Jason admitted to feeling edgy when he went through the grading with chief instructor Alan Gibson.

He said: "I was a bit nervous but it was all right in the end."

Father Steve Downer, a former Brighton Boys footballer and English junior table tennis champion, is proud of his boys.

He said: "We got them into the sport because they were a bit too aggressive.

"It's definitely calmed them down and taught them to be disciplined and to have self-control.

"It's also given them plenty of exercise instead of being hunched up in front of the TV and playing computer games."

The Downer brothers have even earned lavish praise from official quarters.

English Karate Governing Board coach Suzanne Denerery said: "It's very much an achievement to get black belts at their age. It's very young and certainly one of the youngest sets of brothers I've heard of do it."

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