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London 2012

Hall: Plenty of work ahead

GB Taekwondo squad looking good ahead of London 2012

Last Updated: December 6, 2011 12:27pm

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Gary Hall: Tough road still to travel ahead of London 2012

Sky Bet

Performance director Gary Hall maintains Great Britain's Taekwondo fighters know there are still tough battles ahead as they target medal success at London 2012.

The LOCOG Test event ran smoothly at ExCeL over the weekend when two days of next summer's showpiece event were replicated on a smaller scale.

Aaron Cook collected gold in the under-80kgs when his final opponent Ramin Azizov was forced out through injury, in what was the 20-year-old's first competition back under the Team GB umbrella since making the decision to leave the Taekwondo World Class Performance Programme and pursue his own training regime.

Hall's squad enjoyed a hugely successful 2011, returning from the World Championships in Korea with four medals.

Elite fighters Sarah Stevenson, Jade Jones and Martin Stamper all spent some time at ExCeL over the course of the weekend to get a flavour of what the atmosphere will be like next summer, when there will be close to 8,000 spectators in the Olympic venue.

Camp

Hall will take some of the group out to Mexico ahead of key Olympic qualifying events in the coming months, with the final decision on the four places set to be announced after the European Championships, which will be hosted in Manchester next May.

Hall said: "After the French Open, we will head off to a camp in Mexico to get some altitude training and sparing, which will prepare us for the Dutch and German Opens.

"Then we have the European Championships in May in Manchester, which is a key event for us and we will have our strongest team out.

"Olympic selection is set for after then, when we will be into the final three months to make sure we do everything we can to deliver medal success in London.

"There is still all to play for in terms of selection and we have three big events coming up.

"Some athletes are really rising to the top now, so we can all look forward to 2012."

Consistency

Cook's decision to leave Team GB came on the back of a disappointing early exit at the World Championships, but the Dorset fighter has now found some consistency again.

The 20-year-old, who won the 2011 British Open title, produced an impressive display to edge past experienced Iranian Yousef Karami and then came from behind to beat Spaniard Nicolas Garcia in a dramatic semi-final.

Hall felt the brief link-up was productive for all parties.

"At the end of the day, we have got to work together, we want to work together and are hoping Aaron does as well," said Hall.

"Joseph (Salim) is a world-class coach, so hopefully we can build a relationship and Aaron can continue doing what he is doing.

"If he is selected and it all results in success for Aaron at London 2012, then that is great."

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