ORGANISERS PRAISE 'BEST EVER' OPEN

Over 450 athletes from more than 50 countries took part in last week’s British International Open in Manchester. The event, supported by Manchester City Council, UK Sport and KPMG, is now one of the highest ranking events on the international calendar and its importance to athletes was borne out by the number of Olympians and World Champions who flew into the event.

GB Taekwondo Chairman Jeremy Beard said: “We had a fantastic weekend in Manchester, both for the GB team and more importantly for the event and the sport. In only its fourth year, the Open has become firmly established as an event that the world’s leading players want to attend. This edition was the best yet and its testament to the hard work of the event staff, officials and volunteers as well as the obvious technical advancements made by the sport itself in terms of scoring and presentation.”

GB Taekwondo can confirm that last weekend’s British Open was organised and officiated by GB Taekwondo and was not used for testing London 2012 operations, including scoring systems. This will be done at the Taekwondo Olympic test event taking place on 3/4th December 2011.

Highlights of the British Open are scheduled to be broadcast on Sky Sports at the end of October.