Sport

Olympic-medallist Jade Jones joins 250 professional athletes for World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Manchester

By Danielle Wainwright

Around 250 of the world’s best athletes including Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones will arrive in Manchester in December to take part in a prestigious taekwondo competition as tickets go on sale Monday.

The WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix, in partnership with Manchester City Council and UK Sport’s Gold Event Series, will run from December 13 to 15 at Manchester Central with eight different weight categories battling it out for vital qualification points ahead of Rio 2016.

Team GB stars such as Martin Stamper, Michael Harvey and Lutalo Muhammad will join Jade in the first of four global taekwondo Grand Prix.

Jade, who lives and trains in Manchester, said: “It’s so exciting to have a major Taekwondo event launch in Manchester. This is a brilliant chance for people to revisit the buzz surrounding last year’s Olympics and support what will be a great show of sporting talent.

“There really is nothing like performing in front of a passionate home crowd!”

GB Taekwondo Performance Director, Gary Hall, said: “Manchester is the home of GB Taekwondo and to launch such a highly anticipated event here is a real honour.

“During London 2012 we saw incredible support for taekwondo and we expect the Grand Prix to be a really popular event. This is a great opportunity for sports fans to witness the athletes of Rio 2016 in action on our doorstep.”

The Grand Prix final will be held at the end of 2014 with fans attending the Manchester event able to choose from three types of tickets – day, night or a combined pass, with a choice of standard and premium seats available.

Tickets for WTF World Grand Prix Manchester are available for general purchase through Ticketmaster from 11:00 on Monday.

For more information about tickets and the full Grand Prix schedule click here.

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