National Squad Selection 20242025

NATIONAL SQUAD SELECTION 2024/2025

Athletes that have met the criteria to be part of the British Taekwondo National Squad would have received their invitations around a week ago to join us on another exciting year of development. This year we have made the criteria a little more difficult for athletes to be included in the squad as we continue to drive standards on an upward trajectory. Here is a reminder of the routes into the Squad.

  • Medallists from the 2024 National Kyorugi Championships in the Senior, Junior, Cadet & Children’s Categories (Only if you are in the last year of the children’s category)
  • 4 entries or below – Gold Medallist Only
  • 5 to 8 entries – Gold & Silver Medallist Only
  • 9+ entries – All Medallists
  • Medallists at G class events in 2024 or 2025 with at least 1 match win
  • Medallists at E class events in 2024 or 2025 with at least 1 match win
  • Promotion from Youth Development Camps based on performance & commitment, following a trial period of training with the Sport Performance National Squad
  • Athlete selection through Talent ID

With this most recent cohort of athletes, we have some exciting opportunities lined up that we haven’t been able to offer previously including expert presentations & training camps. For those of you that didn’t quite make it don’t worry too much, continue to work hard as there are further opportunities for you to join us on this journey. We are holding our Youth Development Camps on a more regular basis, these offer the opportunity for you to gain promotion to the squad should you impress the coaching team. Alternatively, go and win yourself a medal at an international E/G class event and you will be automatically invited

COACH RECRUITMENT

I am really pleased to announce 2 new additions to our coaching delivery team. After working with us recently on a trial basis Josh Calland & Mark Moores have joined us and are excited to add their expertise to the current delivery team as we move forward. Both have significant experience both domestically but more importantly at an international level, it is important we continue to grow and expand our vision of becoming more of a medal winning nation on the international stage. I am confident that Mark and Josh have a significant amount of knowledge, passion and energy that will enhance this vision and help drive us towards this goal

Some people may already know but for a little while now Nelson Saenz Miller has been supporting at our Squad Sessions. Nelson is one of the worlds most experienced coaches and he coached Caden Cunningham to an amazing Silver Medal at the Paris Olympic Games, which wasn’t Nelson’s first Olympic Medal as a coach by the way. It is difficult for me to put into words how fortunate we are to have Nelson offering his expertise to our young athletes, but he is passionate about helping us. With the additions of Mark, Josh & Nelson to what was an already strong coaching line up I am certain 2024/2025 will be our best year of improvement as a department


CHANGE OF DEPARTMENT ROLES

On top of the coach recruitment outlined above we have made some changes within the department in order to maximise the level of support and development opportunities we can offer. Our chair Siva Ramasamy and I have become more hands on with delivery at our sessions which we believe is having a very positive impact and my role is now becomes Performance Manager. In order to develop and drive performance for both athletes and coaches, Nelson, Siva and I will form the High Performance Team of British Taekwondo Sport Performance Department to approach and map out coaching and athlete development in a more strategic manner.

Daniel Flesher has taken over some of my responsibilities as Operations Manager and Donna Thomas maintains her logistics role, Donna will now be supported by Richard Bungey in the central BT office. The new department structure is as follows:

Chair – Siva Ramasamy

Performance Manger – Stephen Jennings

Operations Manager – Daniel Flesher

Squad Logistics Manger – Donna Thomas

Talent & Technical Department Officer – Richard Bungey

MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS SELECTED TEAMS


Our selected teams are representing Great Britain over the next month at both the Cadet European Championships and the Under 21 European Championships. It is an incredible honour to represent your country so congratulations to all the athletes, parents and coaches that have worked together to make this a possibility.

 

Cadet European Championships (Tiirana, Albania 7th – 9th November)

 
Male -33kg – Josh Sherratt (BTS North) Female -29kg – Nyah Cannon (NTC)
Male -37kg – Bryce Mateo (Kixstar Dragon TKD) Female -37kg – Poppy Kingsley (Passion TKD)
Male-41kg – Zar Torley (NTC) Female -41kg – Jia Ghosrani (Wild Tiger TKD)
Male -41kg – Sam Taylor (NTC)  Female -44kg – Ikrah Hussein (Horizon TKD)
Male -45kg – Salman Fallata (Kixstar Dragon TKD) Female -51kg – Monika Iljeva (NTC)
Male -49kg – Shaan Jhita (Superior TKD) Female +59kg – Paige Vincent (LMC TKD)
Male -57kg – Blake Keegan Kirk (NTC)
Male -61kg – Henry Longthorne (Warrior TKD)
 

-21 European Championships (Sarajevo, Bosnia 20th – 23rd November)

 
Male -54kg – Alex Sherratt (BTS North) Female -49kg – Latisha Garbett (NTC)
Male -54kg – Finn Labong (Liverpool Elite TKD) Female -53kg – Lily Kingsley (Passion TKD)
Male-58kg – Zack Sarsoza (Kixstar Dragon TKD)
Male – 63kg – Karan Landa (NTC)
Male -74kg – Oakley Wright (NTC)

Congratulations also to Ashleigh Lightfoot who won a quota place for the Under 21 European Championships when she won a medal at this year’s Presidents Cup and will be representing her club Black Widow Taekwondo out in Bosnia.

The selected athletes will undergo 2 intense training camp weekends at the National Taekwondo Centre in preparation for the competitions, this is on top of our usual squad sessions. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of all at British Taekwondo to wish our athletes well in their upcoming competitions.

Steve Jennings – Performance Manager

BT Sport Performance Department