Doncaster teenagers win medals at European Taekwondo Junior Championships

With Bradly Sinden’s Olympic silver medal still fresh in the memory, the town’s next generation of taekwondo stars have been busy at the Junior European Championships in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Teenagers Owen Blunt and Latisha Garbett – who live within 100 yards of each other in Dunscroft – both earned bronze medals in Sarajevo.

The pair both represent Doncaster’s Ultimate Taekwondo club.

Blunt, 15, is part of GB Taekwondo’s junior development programme, while Garbett, 17, is set to move into the senior ranks while combining taekwondo with her studies.

Hungerhill School pupil Blunt earned his medal at -45kg with victories against Turkey’s Hamza Osma Aydoga (15-4) and Spain’s Javier Otero (29-27) before losing to world number one Makysm Manenkov from Ukraine.

“My journey has only just started,” said Blunt. “A bronze medal is my stepping stone to bigger and better things.”

Garbett, a sixth form student at Trinity Academy, beat Bosnia’s Makas Dzejla (26-12), Austria’s Theresa Horl (15-8) and Ukraine’s Yekateryn Khomenko (19-16) but also suffered defeat at the semi-final stage to Turkey’s Aleyna Senyurt.

Blunt and Garbett accounted for half of GB’s medal haul with Scottish prospects Neve McPhillie and Adele Williamson also winning bronze medals.

Steve Green, GB Taekwondo’s development manager, said: “Many congratulations to all debutants competing at their first major championship and to the medallists.

“This was always going to be an unpredictable event with limited exposure during the last two years to G1 tournaments and major championships.

“But a ‘bronze bonanza’ signals the junior team knows there is much more work to do on our performances to ensure the results look after themselves.

“We have many promising athletes, and more than half of this current team remain juniors for 2022.

“We will now focus on implementing our training plan leading up to the 2022 Junior World Championships in Sofia next August.”