UK Sport

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
the national lottery
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
Press Enter to Search
News

Fighting Chance hopefuls take next step on the Road to Rio

Published 19 April 2013

The second phase of Fighting Chance: Battle4Brazil took place last weekend (13-14 Apr) in Manchester as 80 taekwondo hopefuls attempted to prove they have what it takes to make the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Fighting Chance: Battle4Brazil is a nationwide search for talented male and female athletes across all taekwondo weight categories, run in conjunction by GB Taekwondo, UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport.

The Fighting Chance programme was first run in 2009 and discovered London 2012 Olympic taekwondo bronze medallist Lutalo Muhammad, as well as two-time Taekwondo Open champion and former kickboxing world champion Damon Sansum.

Having made it through Phase One, athletes from a range of martial arts returned to Manchester to go through a more detailed investigation into their potential.

The session included competing in a fight tournament under the observation of GB Taekwondo’s high performance coaches, as well as undertaking assessments on key areas including kick efficiency, robustness, coachability, power and agility.

Athletes also heard from Fighting Chance graduate Damon Samsun and Olympic and World medallist Sarah Stevenson about their sporting journeys.
                              
GB Taekwondo Performance Director Gary Hall commented: “Phase Two of the Fighting Chance programme was another really big step towards finding talented athletes from other combat sports and martial arts that could go on to win medals in Rio.

“The quality and commitment from all the athletes in attendance was hugely encouraging and it has provided the coaching team and I with real confidence that this programme will unearth some genuine British talent who can challenge for major medal success in the future.”

With a background in the ITF code of taekwondo, 15-year-old Tiegan Flay from Newton Abott said Fighting Chance had been a great opportunity.

She said: “When I found out that I’d got through to Phase Two, I was overwhelmed and excited. I’ve been training harder for WTF. Phase Two is more technical and the feedback from the coaches has been really useful. I enjoyed the workshops and found them really insightful.”

Another trialling athlete, Rachelle Booth, 17, from Wigan said: “I have really enjoyed my experience of Fighting Chance so far and my ambition is to get through to boot camp and then the GB Academy. I see it as a natural career progression of getting to the Games and winning a medal.

“When I found out that I had got through to Phase Two it felt like I had really achieved something. More is expected of you in Phase Two and is more performance focused.”

Athletes who are successful from Phase Two will be invited to take part in a week long boot camp from 14-18 May, with the ultimate ambition to earn a place in the GB Taekwondo Academy.

Senior Talent Scientist with the UK Talent Team Ian Yates said: “The quality and quantity of athletes we’ve assessed at Fighting Chance has really impressed us. Indeed, we have seen twice as many at this stage in comparison to 2009 which reaffirms  the value of talent transfer in WTF taekwondo. We have also identified a competitive group of women across targeted weight categories which was a key objective for this year’s campaign.

“It will be exciting to see how they fare at Phase Three – a week-long boot camp designed to confirm their potential to develop as elite fighters. Whilst they have a long way to go, based on the coaches’ expert opinions and our assessments to date I’m optimistic that we have unearthed athletes with the potential to be successful in Rio and beyond.”
 

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
News
Team of Tomorrow image with lined up athletes from left to right, Ben Cumberland, Megan Farrer,  Thomas Young, Tom Hattee, and Ellie Challis.
UK Sport launches Environmental Sustainability Strategy to protect ‘Team of Tomorrow’
28 March 2023
five athletes sat on stage in mid disussion
International Relations Seminar 2023
21 March 2023
Eilish crossing the line celebrating with her arms in the air
New research shows British public support athletes speaking out and driving social change
8 March 2023
Sport jobs in the UK
Find & advertise UK based sports jobs here
Read more
Funding Partners
  • DCMS
  • TNL partners
Strategic Partners
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • english institute of sport logo
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • UK Sport editorial policy
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Website terms
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies policy
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2023