Teen athlete Caden Cunningham registered a new career high after he clinched silver on the final day of The World Taekwondo Grand Prix III.
The 19-year-old was among the six medalists for Team GB at World Taekwondo Grand Prix III, hosted by Manchester Regional Arena.
His teammates all fought intensely throughout the day, Bianca Cook and Rebecca McGowan both had quarter-final finishes and Morgan Curtis finished in her qualifying matches.
Cunningham, after his final match, said: “I’m gutted I didn’t get the gold but its life isn’t it, it’s taekwondo.
“Rules are still hazy so I feel like I was getting held back a little, but I never try to dwell on it, I did good things.
“I’m proud of my teammates.
“I had my mum, my grandma, and people from childhood who came to support me.
“I appreciate all the crowd, and anyone who cheered my name, thank you.”
Cunningham won his first match against Ukraine, while his opponent failed to stay in the ring due to Cunningham’s strong stab kicks and headshots – an easy win for the Huddersfield athlete (round one 12-0 and round two 11-10).
McGowan defeated Poland in her first fight of the day by securing a point gap in two rounds (round one 6-3 and round two 4-1).
Despite GB’s rejected video replay in the second round, Curtis fought strongly after a challenging match against Poland, but the win went to her taller opponent in both rounds (round one 5-2 and round two 5-0).
Cook punched her way to the next round, while video replays from both sides were rejected, Queen B stood her ground in a three-round fight against Italy (round one 2-5, round two 3-3 and round three 4-1).
Cunningham bagged another strong win against Turkey, progressing into the quarterfinals with his teammate Cook (round one 8-1 and round two 5-2).
McGowan started strong in her qualifying match and fought well against Germany, however with five Gam-jeoms and a rejected video replay, the victory wasn’t hers for the taking (round one 7-3, round two 3-7 and round three 2-5).
Cunningham got through to the semifinals, after a close and controversial match with Brazil, Cunningham was booed by the crowd for head-butting his opponent in the clinch (round one 6-4, round two 5-5 and round three 2-1).
After three high-intensity rounds and a tumble to the floor, Cook had a quarter-final finish, the win went to Germany (round one 4-0, round two 2-3 and round three 7-8).
Cunningham won his semi-final match, a close call after a third round was called, but the heavyweight from Yorkshire prevailed using feints to score some strong headshots and double roundhouse flurry kicks (round one 6-4, round two 5-6 and round three 5-2).
Making it to the finals, Cunningham left the ring with a sliver against an Olympic bronze medalist from Brazil, who took the win in the final seconds of the third match with a kick to the body – for Cunningham’s first Grand Prix final, he proved himself amongst his most respected teammates (round one 6-4, round two 3-8 and round three 1-4).
Cunningham has his mind focused on his next competition, The World Taekwondo Championships, set for 13th-20th November 2022 in Mexico.
He said: “I’ll come back.
“I try not to think about results just because you can expect more from yourself and put too much pressure on. But I’ll take each fight like I do round by round fight by fight.”
Note: The new rules regarding Olympic-style Taekwondo matches are as follows – there can be a total of three rounds each lasting two minutes. At the end of each round, the fighter with the most points wins the round. If a fighter has won the first two rounds, a third match is no longer needed to decide the winner.
Bianca Cook, Rebecca McGowan, Morgan Curtis +67kg, Caden Cunningham +80kg.
