Home / Bianca Walkden / Great Brits! Walkden, Sinden on verge of historic World Championship gold

Great Brits! Walkden, Sinden on verge of historic World Championship gold

16th May 2019

Bianca Walkden and Bradly Sinden will go for gold on day three of taekwondo’s World Championships (May 17) after superb semi-final victories at Manchester Arena tonight.

Double champion Walkden is one fight away from achieving legendary status after reaching a third successive +73kg final.

Yorkshireman Sinden is six minutes from becoming GB Taekwondo’s first ever male able-bodied taekwondo world gold medallist.

The 20-year-old from Doncaster stunned South Korean great Dae-hoon Lee 24-23 in the penultimate round of the -68kg weight division.

Liverpool heavyweight Walkden, a world winner in 2015 and 2017, defeated Mexican rival Briseida Costa 19-9 in her semi-final to also guarantee silver.

Standing in the way of Walkden’s bid for a unique treble is Chinese rival, Shuyin Zheng, who defeated Doris Pole of Croatia 9-2 in the second semi-final.

The pair famously met in the 2016 Olympic Games semi-finals with Zheng winning and then going onto claim gold.

That’s the one blemish on Walkden’s outstanding record that continues to drive on the 27-year-old title holder to more success.

“I know I will die trying for that,” she said when asked about her search for a third world crown. “Hopefully, I can do it and it will be a dream come true.

“I want to leave a big legacy and to become a legend in my weight. But I have not got there I have one more fight.

“I’m obviously made up I am through to the final again but I am gutted I didn’t do a few things well that I should have done,” explained Walkden, tied at 2-2 after the first round but helped by a big, second round headshot.

“I don’t know why I am so angry. But that’s just me I am a bit of a perfectionist.

“Sometimes, you have to just do what you have to do to go through. And I did that.“

Walkden beat Lorena Brandl 23-14 in quarter-finals having knocked out Uzbek Svetlana Osipova 18-5 in her last 16.

Sinden’s previous meeting against three-time champion Lee ended the Asian ace’s two-year unbeaten record at the World Grand Slam in China last December.

He lost the final to China’s Shuai Zhao but is determined history won’t repeat itself against Spain’s Javier Perez Polo, a 12-6 semi-final winner over Russian Alexey Denisenko.

“I had a big range of emotions at losing in the Grand Slam final,” explained the 2017 world championship bronze medallist.

“But it just pushed me on to be more determined for the next one.

“It’s character building. You take that, you work on it and you see if you put it into the next comp.

“I have done a lot of big comebacks (Sinden trailed 17-12 in round three) and he is hard person to do it against.

“But I believe in my fitness, I believe what I do in training and I push myself to do everything I can do.

“I knew I could beat him but I knew it would be a really difficult fight.

“He is an amazing fighter. We were both tired but it gave me confidence because I could hear him breathing heavily and he doesn’t normally get tired.

“So, I thought ‘I have got this’ let’s keep pushing.”

Sinden reached the world semi-finals for a second successive edition by knocking out Belgium’s Si Mohamed Ketbi.

The Yorkshire star was heading for another points gap win when his opponent was disqualified for amassing too many penalty points.

Sinden started his campaign, conceding only one point in beating Belarus’s Ali Radwan 25-1.

In his last 16, Sinden was involved in one of the highest scoring contests of the championships to date beating Arven Alcantara 55-34.

Fellow Doncaster fighter Mason Yarrow reached the last eight at -54kg on his senior world championship debut.

He enjoyed two excellent early wins before losing to South Korea’s Jun-Seo Bae who will contest tomorrow’s final against Russian Georgy Popov.

“He is a good fighter but I wasn’t good enough,” said Yarrow after his points gap defeat

“The first round just took the match out of my hands. I let him dictate the match instead of focusing on my game.

“After that, I started to open up a little more and began to get caught.

“It was an amazing experience but it’s just so disappointing it came to an end like this.

“I am still young and there are a lot of tournaments ahead. So, hopefully, I can do better next time.”

Yarrow made his senior bow by knocking out 2019 African Championship bronze medallist, Amine Elharmazi of Morocco 33-13. He followed up with a 26-4 win against Egyptian Moaz Nabil.

*Tickets for the exciting event are still available for purchase on kickingforglory.com, don’t miss out on the chance to see the World’s best in action on home soil before the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Squad:

Male:

-63kg: Josh Calland (Liverpool)

-68kg: Bradly Sinden (Doncaster)

-74kg: Christian McNeish (Plaistow)

-80kg: Damon Sansum (Elgin)

-87kg: Lutalo Muhammad (Walthamstow)

+87kg: Mahama Cho (Stockwell)

 

Female:

-49kg: Maddison Moore (Blakedown)

-53kg: Aaliyah Powell (Huddersfield)

-57kg: Jade Jones (Flint)

-62kg: No selection

-67kg: Lauren Williams (Blackwood)

Friday GB schedule:

Maddison Moore (-49kg), Jade Jones (-57kg), Christian McNeish (-74kg), plus Bradly Sinden (-68kg), Bianca Walkden (+73kg)

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