Home / Fighting Chance / “No pressure to be as good as Jade,” says GB Taekwondo debutant, Luke.

“No pressure to be as good as Jade,” says GB Taekwondo debutant, Luke.

Luke Jones makes his GB Taekwondo debut at the Austrian Open on Sunday insisting he’s under no pressure to match the achievements of his big sister.

Jones, the 18-year-old brother of double Olympic Games gold medallist, Jade Jones, is part of a youthful squad competing in Innsbruck.

All but two, Josh Calland and Rachelle Booth, only joined the GB set-up in Manchester as part of the Fighting Chance talent ID initiative earlier this year.

“It’s my first international competition so there is a bit of pressure,” admits Jones junior.

“It’s the biggest one I have done and I want to see where I am against the rest of the world.

“Some people would take it as extra pressure because Jade has been so successful. But I don’t take it like that.

“I am proud of what she has done but this is what I can do in the sport and my aim is to hopefully do as good as Jade.

“I want to enjoy it as well. I don’t want to be a bag of nerves, training too hard thinking I have got to catch upto Jade.

“On fight day I am sure I will be a bag of nerves but once I step on the mat they will disappear.”

While Jones was already involved in WTF Taekwondo, Derecce Williams, 19, from Wolverhampton transferred from kickboxing.

“I’m excited by the challenge of doing a new sport but at the same time I feel a little nervous,” he admitted.

“You don’t know what is out there because it is still all new. But I am eager to go out there and show the coaches my potential.

“A lot of people from kickboxing are keen to see what I am like in this sport. I have had a lot of people message me asking when I am fighting.”

Williams also refuses to be daunted by the success of the GB team.

“Rather than putting pressure on myself by saying ‘why am I not on the same level as certain people’ you take yourself as an athlete and monitor your own performance.

“As long as I know I am improving and going in the right direction, the coaches are going to appreciate that.

“They will know with a lot of work you will be at the top level like everyone else.”

Isobella McNeish is another graduate from kickboxing and the sister of current GB Taekwondo star, Christian McNeish.

“I am quite nervous as it is my first WTF taekwondo competition,” she says. “And I didn’t do many international tournaments in kickboxing.

“It is fun but it is different. I still punch quite a bit so I am not going to stop punching.

“Taking up a new sport does increase the pressure but only self pressure not from other people.”

 

 Schedule

 Saturday, June 3:

 Female:

Junior

 -68kg: Simone Abley (Spennymoor)

 

Sunday, June 4:

 Male:

 -58kg: Alex Goulding (Normanton), Hassan Haider (Falkirk), Luke Jones (Flint), Joshua Levers (Rotherham)

 -68kg: Jacob Barnett (Leeds), Josh Calland (Liverpool), Derecce Williams (Wolverhampton)

 +87kg: Jack Spall (Attleborough)

 Female:

 -49kg: Pooja Vadhva (Manchester)

-53kg: Courtney Eardley (Wakefield)

-62kg: Rachelle Booth (Wigan), Leah Moorby (Keighley), Isobella McNeish (Plaistow), Emelye O’Brien (Bradford)

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