12th June 2023

Image courtesy of World Taekwondo.

Scotland’s Rebecca McGowan took GB Taekwondo’s final medal tally to three with bronze at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Rome.

After gold medal successes for Jade Jones and Caden Cunningham, World Championship silver medallist McGowan finished third in the +67 kg category.

The Dumbarton fighter battled her way into the semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over French rival, Solene Avoulette.

But McGowan’s bid for a final spot ended in a close 2-0 defeat to Lei Xu, one of three defeats for GBT athletes against Chinese opposition.

Xu gained revenge for defeat to McGowan in this year’s Belgian Open final, winning 11-6, 9-6.

Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, Lauren Williams, lost in the quarter-finals at -67kg, beaten 2-1 by Xu’s compatriot, Jie Song.

Williams hit back after losing the opening round to force a decider but was then edged out 17-15.

In the same weight division, Stoke’s Chloe Roberts lost 2-1 in the last 32 against Jordan’s Julyana Al-Sadeq while at -49kg Chasetown’s Maddison Moore went down in the last 32 to China’s Qing Guo.

In the men’s competition, Londoner Mohammed Nour lost 2-0 in the last 16 against Spain’s Hugo Arillo Vazquez at – 58kg.

*At the Luxembourg Open, Leo Speight collected a bronze medal losing to Marcos Caballero Echevarria of Spain in the -68kg category.