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Manchester Cements Place As Taekwondo Capital of Europe

25th June 2019

Manchester has been named as the host city for the 2022 European Championships just a month after successfully staging the first World Championships ever held in Great Britain.

The decision by the World Taekwondo Europe Executive Council follows on from last month’s decision to name Manchester as the host city for the 2023 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final and award hosting rights for a World Taekwondo Grand Prix in 2021.

Dates and venues are yet to be confirmed.

The value of hosting home tournaments was underlined by the performances of Manchester trained GB fighters at the World Championships at the Manchester Arena.

Bradly Sinden became the nation’s inaugural male able-bodied world champion, Aaliyah Powell was named Britain’s youngest Taekwondo athlete to win a World Championship medal, double Olympic champion, Jade Jones, claimed her first world crown while Bianca Walkden won a record-breaking third title.

The European Championships will be returning to Manchester for the first time since 2012 when the tournament was the last significant international competition before the London 2012 Olympics.

Stakeholders UK Sport, Manchester City Council, GB Taekwondo and British Taekwondo have now fulfilled their ambition to host three major events in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Simon Morton, Chief Operating Officer of UK Sport, said: “It’s fantastic to be supporting GB Taekwondo through National Lottery funding to bring the European Championships to Manchester in 2022.

“The decade ahead is shaping up to be a wonderful showcase of some of the World’s best sporting events here in the UK.

“We look forward to working with GB Taekwondo and partners to deliver another spectacular event to inspire the nation.”

Matt Archibald, Chief Executive Officer of GB Taekwondo, said: “Events run on a longer timescale than GBTKD’s primary performance focus of preparing athletes for Olympic and Paralympic success.

“We have to look beyond Tokyo and to the Paris cycle to ensure we remain competitive in the event hosting domain.

“The outstanding relationships we have built with World Taekwondo, World Taekwondo Europe and our stakeholders have allowed us to pitch for and win these three major events.

“We can now work to deliver these events to a standard that allows our athletes to showcase their talent to a domestic audience whilst maximising their chances to qualify for Paris 2024.

“I have no doubt this news will provide extra motivation to all of our athletes living and training in Manchester.

“I’d like to thank World Taekwondo for their strategic planning and our partners for enabling us to bid early with confidence and secure these three exciting events.”

Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Skills, Culture and Leisure, Councillor Luthfur Rahman, said: “Manchester is committed to supporting Taekwondo and is proud to play host to GB’s elite stars at their training base in Newton Heath.

“Having successfully hosted this year’s World Championships, we’re now looking ahead to the 2021 World Taekwondo Grand Prix, the 2022 European Championships and the 2023 Grand Prix final, as we cement Manchester’s reputation as a world-leading city for this exciting sport.”

Sarah Stevenson Jennings MBE, President of British Taekwondo and a multiple former European and World gold medallist, said: “Bringing top-level events to Britain is not only a great platform for our athletes to perform in front of a home crowd.

“But is a chance for the elite element of taekwondo to connect with communities, clubs, and schools to inspire participation in a sport that can help with key elements of our lives such as confidence, fitness, well-being, socialising and meeting new people.

“To have a number of top events coming to these shores over the coming years will help create a very strong legacy where we can open the doors to as many people as possible to take part in and enjoy taekwondo.”

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