Luke Joining Big Sister Jade In Quest For Taekwondo Success

Luke Jones – the teenage brother of double Olympic champ Jade – has joined GB Taekowndo’s Academy programme in Manchester.

The Flint fight prospect, 18, was one of 14 who were picked from the 282 who originally applied for the sport’s Fighting Chance scheme.

The group have already started full training as part of the initiative aimed at finding the next batch of major medal hopefuls.

GB Taekwondo’s Performance Director Gary Hall said: “Luke is a good character, very much like his sister.

“He is fighter which is one of the characteristics we looked for..

“He hasn’t got the tactical game finesses his sister has but he has a lot of the basic ingredients.”

Jade won gold at London aged just 19 and defended her title in Rio last summer.

She is now back in training as part of the run-up to Tokyo 2020 after taking time out to take part in the Channel 4 programme ‘The Jump’.

Luke has the chance to emulate the likes of Rio 2016 silver medallist, Lutalo Muhammad who was also a Figbhting Chance graduate.

The initiative, delivered by GB Taekwondo in partnership with UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport is aimed at fast tracking 15-24 year olds into the world of high-performance sport and is now in its fourth edition.

“After the Rio Olympic cycle we began another search for athletes through
the Fighting Chance initiative,” added Hall.

“Those 40 were all screened during a long boot camp before we arrived at the 14 who are now joining the Academy.

“This group is really strong. We have done it four times and this got to be one of the strongest intakes we have had

“They will go on a three-month programme, including participation in the Austrian Open to see how they perform.
“If they are really making progress in the system then we will continue with them.”