Britain’s Aaron Cook Strikes Gold at Taekwondo World Junior Championships
Monday 12th May, 2008
Teenage taekwondo sensation Aaron Cook became the first ever male British athlete to win a WTF World Junior Championship title after taking gold in Turkey, while team-mate Bianca Walkden completed a successful weekend for Team GB by seizing silver.
Aaron Cook (Scorpion Taekwondo Club, Doncaster), 17 was in scintillating form bringing an early end to his -78kg final bout against Korean Yeong Rae with the score at 12-8. This followed convincing victories in earlier rounds in which he beat Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei and Russia each within the 3 rounds by creating a 7 point gap and before overcoming China in the semi-final.
Cook said, “China and Korea are traditionally the two strongest nations so to beat them in the semis and finals is an absolute dream – I can’t stop smiling. I knew I was in good form from my earlier rounds but my match against Korea felt a breeze. Going into the final round at 10-8 I decided not to hang around and managed to score 2 points quickly to take it to 12-8 which means I automatically won and the fight stopped early.”
Bianca Walkden (Elite Taekwondo Club, Liverpool) continued Britain’s rich vein of form by taking the +68kg silver medal in a tightly contested final, losing to her Tunisian opponent 4-3. The 16 year-old beat athletes from France, Canada and Russia to reach the final but ultimately could find no way past the Tunisian who has already proved herself to be of world-class calibre by qualifying for the Olympics and winning the Beijing Test Event. Jordan Gayle (Aces Taekwondo Club, Manchester) put in a series of strong performances in the qualifying rounds leading to an encouraging -59kg quarter final appearance before eventually lost to Kazakhstan.
The WTF World Junior Championships were the last major international event that British Taekwondo will send a team to before the Olympics in the summer where the British team have secured 3 out of a maximum 4 Olympic spots. The squad to travel to Beijing will be announced to the Press at the Korean Cultural Centre in central London on Tuesday May 20th.
Posted on May 24th, 2008 | By: Gam-goem | Filed under Industry News
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