attired, the figure of Gladwin (Roots) Phillips doesn't exactly strike fear in the heart.

But these outer features belie a high-powered fighting machine possessing inner strength and an unquenchable thirst for competition. Just ask the Brazilian who had the misfortune to meet Phillips in last week's World Karate Organisation Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Phillips, a 35-year-old divorced father of four, dusted off the supposed South American star in the final of the 145-lb weight category, using his favourite move, an overhead ridge hand, to achieve the winning point after the pair had been deadlocked at 3-3 with time running out.

What followed was a celebration akin to that of a team winning the World Cup or Super Bowl, as Phillips jumped in the air, fists pumping and then into the arms of his coach, Skipper Ingham.

It was only after Phillips regained his composure some time later that the judges raised their flags to officially grant the Bermudian the point which gave him Bermuda's first ever world championship gold medal in kumite (sparring). Ingham himself, just two years ago, won a world title in kata (forms).

"It was a great feeling,'' said Phillips, who triumphed in a tournament over participants from 19 countries. "The competition was stiff and one of the guys I fought was a Brazilian champion in his weight division. He was sharp and everybody expected when we were both announced as first (in each group -- there were two sections A and B) that he would be the winner, but I proved them wrong.

"I've been training for a long time and there's a lot of things that's happened in my life, but this here would have to be number one right now. I've always said I wanted to win a world championship and I knew in the back of my mind I could do it, but I didn't have enough power and gusto, the umph to go ahead and do it (until now).

"I won my first fight on Saturday and I said if I can win one fight, I can win two, then I won another fight and started to surprise myself. And that's when my sensei said, `Look Roots you can go all the way'.'' Indeed Phillips, nicknamed Roots in his younger years for his likeness to Levar Burton's character Kunta Kinte in the movie of the same name, gives much credit for his success to Ingham, under whom he has trained for 14 years.

Countless hours of often monotonous training in the gym as well as running outside, interspersed with tennis to relax, have contributed to the making of Bermuda's latest champion.

"A lot of credit has to go to sensei Skipper Ingham because it feels good winning the championships, but without his help and guidance of teaching me the techniques and telling me `I'm not doing that right and I'm doing this wrong' and stuff like that...he's the one who's put me on the right track.'' And just what does Ingham think of his prized student? "Roots worked hard and trained hard for four years for this,'' said Ingham, who operates the Bermuda Karate Institute. "If you work you get paid. If you don't work you don't get paid. If you're lazy you get fired. If you work hard you get a raise... Roots has worked extremely hard. He's made history for Bermuda.

"Roots was just ready, he felt it and I felt it. I told him to go and take charge and that's what he did.'' Phillips told of the advice Ingham always stressed to the fighter throughout his years of training, saying it had helped him to persevere through troubled times.

"One piece of good advice he used to give me was `never give up' and that one of these days would be my day, he's always told me that,'' said Phillips, clutching the gleaming golden trophy that is his to hold for the next two years.

CREAM OF THE CROP -- World Champion karate expert Gladwin Phillips displays some of the form which resulted in his stunning triumph in Argentina.