Yorkshire stars Caden Cunningham, Bradly Sinden and Aaliyah Powell help GB Taekwondo dominate European Games

Fresh from regaining his world title in the 68kg category in Baku, Doncaster’s Tokyo silver medallist Bradly Sinden won another silver medal at the European Games in Krakow earlier this week.

That was followed by Huddersfield’s Aaliyah Powell, already a triple world championship bronze medallist at the age of 20, adding a bronze in the -62kg category at the European Games.

Powell defeated Milijana Reljikj of Macedonia 2-0 in the bronze-medal bout after losing her semi-final against Belgium’s Sarah Chaari.

“It’s all just learning and processing,” said Powell, who now has four major bronze medals to her name. “Qualification for Paris isn’t over yet.

“Obviously, it’s not the colour I wanted. It’s not what I came here for. But it is good to come away with something.

“There are still a lot more competitions to come, a lot more work and areas to improve on.

“I feel like as we get closer to the Games, for athletes from Olympic sports, that clock’s ticking down and we’re on the final straight now.

“I just try to take it step by step, match by match, competition by competition, and do the best I can.”

And there was better to come when Caden Cunningham claimed the first major international medal of his career – a gold – in the +87kg category.

Cunningham, 20, from Huddersfield, defeated North Macedonian athlete Dejan Georgievski in the final.

“It feels amazing to win this for Team GB,” said Cunningham, a recent winner at the World Grand Prix in Rome. “It means everything.

“They have given me a lot of opportunities. It is only right for me to make use of those and get the gold.

“This is something I’ve been working towards for a while,” added Cunningham who reached his latest final with a 2-0 success against Pasco Bozik of Croatia in the semi-final.

“I have known my level, I’m back from injury now – two competitions in a row, two golds, and I don’t intend for that to change.”

Cunningham’s gold made it five medals for the Manchester trained squad with Jade Jones also claiming gold and Maddison Moore a silver. GB Taekwondo won three medals at the inaugural European Games in 2015.