UK taekwondo chief calls for more Olympic places

By Holly Hamilton, Sportsbeat

SPORT Taekwondo UK's performance director Gary Hall is calling for more weight categories to be added to the Olympic programme.

WEALTH OF TALENT: Tyrone Robinson (l) is just one of a number of promising British taekwondo players, says performance director Gary Hall (Getty Images)

Great Britain are only guaranteed two male and two female places at London 2012 as the Olympic competition offers only four weight categories instead of the usual eight found in other major tournaments such as the World Championships.

Sarah Stevenson collected Great Britain's first ever Olympic taekwondo medal at Beijing 2008, while last weekend's BTCB National Championships saw impressive showings from a number of British athletes including victories for Aaron Cook, Cho Mahama and Bianca Walkden. 

And Hall believes there is a widespread pool of talent in the UK, who may be forced away from their favoured category in an attempt to make the Olympic team.

"There should definitely be more weight categories in the Olympics but we have what we have and we need to adapt to that," said Hall.

"However, we have a huge amount of athletes hoping to compete and in the run up to 2012 this number will continue to grow and the competition for places will increase.

"The athletes are now looking to move towards the categories they can be competitive in for the Olympics and they might not be the ones they are most comfortable in."

Cook, who won the -80kg category, has already proven himself on the international stage by reaching the bronze medal match at Beijing 2008 where the 19-year-old narrowly missed out on a medal.

He then went on to defeat five-time world champion and double Olympic medallist Steven Lopez of the USA in the final of the World Taekwondo Tour in Mexico,  

Mahama (+87kg) and Walkden (+73kg) meanwhile, have also showed their pedigree by winning gold and bronze respectively at the French Open Championship at the end of last year.

In an effort to raise the profile of the sport, Sport Taekwondo UK have set up a Fighting Chance initiative to encourage athletes from other combat sports to cross over to Taekwondo.

If this proves successful there will be even more athletes fighting for the all-important Olympic places, prompting Hall to look for more sponsorship to supplement the £4.4m made available from UK Sport.

"Our funding was lowered by UK Sport in December but not by much and we had already received a 40 percent increase after Beijing so we can't complain," added Hall.

"We have a great partnership with KPMG but we are currently looking for more sponsors who can provide significant levels of money.

"The quality of the performances at the weekend was exceptional and we need to make sure we make the most of all this British talent in the run up to 2012 and Rio in 2014."