The BTCB Sport Taekwondo UK Ltd, the high performance business arm of the National Governing Body for Olympic Taekwondo in Great Britain, has appointed three high performance coaching staff to work with their elite academy athletes. The appointments are aimed at ensuring the long term success at both next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing and London 2012. Nelson Miller has been recruited as senior high performance coach and will draw on the support of Paul Green and Stephen Jennings who are both brought on board as high performance coaches. This announcement comes at an exciting time for British Taekwondo on the back of the team’s recent move to Manchester’s Sportcity from their previous base in Loughborough.
                                                                                                          
Miller, a forty-one year-old originally from Cuba, brings a multitude of coaching experiences to the British outfit and comes from the Dutch National Team, which he has coached since 2004. Miller was instrumental in the Dutch team which won the 2006 Senior European Championships and was himself a World bronze medallist for Cuba in 1997. Paul Green, a twenty-seven year-old from Manchester, is a hugely experienced Taekwondo player who competed for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Green has a host of impressive achievements to his name including Junior European Champion, two-time Senior European Champion and World silver medallist in 2003. Stephen Jennings, a twenty-six year-old from Liverpool, will combine his role as a player with coaching the elite academy athletes and will bring the experience of a number of National Championship victories to the coaching staff. These two latter appointments are a firm signal of British Taekwondo’s commitment to developing the next generation of elite coaches.

 

Gary Hall, Performance Director for the BTCB Sport Taekwondo UK Ltd who oversaw the appointments with UK Sport, added: “The recruitment of Nelson Miller is a major boost for the players who are already admirers of his achievements with the Dutch National Team. Nelson’s in-depth knowledge of elite taekwondo athlete development will allow us to maintain continuity with the current performance plan being delivered to our athletes within the academy. With Stephen and Paul coming in to support Nelson’s senior coaching plan it is a very exciting and promising time for British Taekwondo.”

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Tickets are now on sale for the 2007 WTF World Taekwondo Qualification Tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which will take place at the MEN Arena in Manchester from 28th to 30th September later this year. This prestigious international event will see at least 182 member nations submit a total of 728 athletes to compete for the right to participate at the next Olympic Games. To purchase tickets please visit the official event website at www.manchester2007.info