GB Taekwondo’s golden stars show their mettle and metal at Slovenia Open
20th September 2022
Couple goals: Bradly Sinden with Rebecca McGowan.
With the return of world-class taekwondo to the UK only a month away, a trio of GB Taekwondo stars showed they mean business on the international stage.
The World Taekwondo Grand Prix takes place at the Manchester Regional Arena from October 20-23 when Bradly Sinden, Jade Jones and Rebecca McGowan all hope to be competing.
So, their gold medal-winning performances at the Slovenia Open were encouraging results ahead of what will be the strongest field of competitors gathered in the UK since the 2019 World Championships.
Sinden, a recent bronze medallist at the Paris Grand Prix, won the -68kg title just a day before his 24th birthday.
Double Olympic champion Jones claimed her third title of 2022 by winning the -57kg division while McGowan added to bronze medals at this year’s European Championships and Rome Grand Prix with victory at -73kg.
Constantly learning 🧠
Straight back to training today , lots of big comps coming up. Lets keep pushing 💪🏼🥇#20points #sloveniaopen #daretodream pic.twitter.com/4Wey6GMEpC
— Jade Jones (@jadejonestkd) September 20, 2022
“It was good to see the team do well,” said Yorkshire star Sinden. “But it is even better when it’s with my girlfriend (McGowan).
“It’s the first time we have fought on the same day and we both came away with gold.
“I didn’t start off the best and made mistakes in my first round. But then my other matches were against good Azerbaijani and Chinese players when I needed to stick to my game plan otherwise mistakes would have been costly.
“Each competition helps us to get used to the new rules. And we are working to be able to adapt no matter how they are implemented.”
Sinden was a gold medallist at this summer’s European Championships in Manchester following last year’s Tokyo 2020 silver.
“Fighting in front of a home crowd is always an amazing experience. There will be fewer rings at the Grand Prix so this will help to create an even better experience and hopefully, I can win another gold medal at home.”
Sinden and his GB teammates will hope home advantage can yield more medals when Manchester hosts the next World Grand Prix from October 20-23. Find out more.
Tickets are available now from £5 for children and £7.50 for adults, buy yours here.
