Pressure? Maybe. Maybe not, when you consider this 17-year-old’s impressive credentials. During a whirlwind week in March alone Jade qualifi ed for the IOC Youth Olympic Games and won silver at the World Junior Championships, both held in Tijuana, Mexico. She’s the reigning Paris Open champion, reigning Dutch Open champion and reigning British National champion - for the third time in succession. All of which makes her the number one ranked Junior in the UK, of any division, male or female. Like I said, remember that name!

Jade, who fi ghts in the -55kg division, spends most of her time training in Manchester.

Carefully guiding her career are the 'holy trinity' of UK taekwondo: Performance Director of Sport Taekwondo UK, Gary Hall, Manchester Aces club coach, Brian Green and his son Paul, who is the Elite Academy High Performance coach (not to mention twice European champion and Athens Olympian) based at the elite taekwondo academy in Manchester. Suffi ce to say, Jade is in good hands.

But it was the watchful eye of David Baker, coach and founder of Matrix Taekwondo, who spotted Jade’s potential as a hard-kicking 11-year- old. David persuaded Jade to take up the Olympic World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) brand of full- contact taekwondo, which he has brought afresh to North East Wales with a network of clubs in Wrexham, Plas Madoc, Ruthin and Saltney.

David said: “Jade was a talent from day one and to some in our sport she may seem like she was an overnight success but not many people know how hard she worked. To get her black belt in WTF taekwondo, we had to completely adapt her style to be able to qualify for these world class competitions. But Jade had a lot of support from her grandparents and with her determination it wasn't long before she started winning gold medals.”

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So Jade, when did you fi rst get into taekwondo?

I started when I was about eight, my granddad got me into it to teach me self defence and keep me off the streets. I started in the semi-contact style fi rst and then once I was winning things, I got ambitions for the Olympics and to be in the Olympics you have to do the full-contact style. So I changed to that.

What was it about taekwondo that got you hooked?

I just love the kicks and it’s so explosive, you can get knockouts and if you just turn off for a second you can be knocked out. So I just love it!

What was it like qualifying for the Youth Olympics and winning silver at the World Junior Championships in the same week?

It was an amazing experience going there (to Mexico). I was made up when I qualifi ed for the Youth Olympics but the World Championships was a couple of days after that, so I found it hard to get mentally ready for that because I was on such a high. But yeah it was amazing. I was a bit gutted getting silver, because I was so close to gold (Jade narrowly lost out to a Korean athlete 15-13 in the fi nal) but once I got back I was chuffed with my performance.

What’s your ultimate ambition? How far do you want to go in the sport?

Well I’ve got loads of smaller goals along the way but my main goal is to represent Great Britain at the London Olympics and to hopefully become the fi rst taekwondo person to get the gold.

What do you like to do away from taekwondo? Have you got any other hobbies?

I don’t get much time for anything else because I’m doing taekwondo full-time at the moment but when I was in school I just loved any sport really.

How does the Talent Cymru funding from Sport Wales help?

It’s helped me loads. It’s enabled me to move to Manchester and train full-time with the elite athletes and get professional help and also going to all the competitions to gain experience, including the Youth Olympics. Without the funding I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

So you’re training under Paul and Brian Green now. How much has it brought your taekwondo along, training in Manchester?

Well, Paul Green has been there and done all that himself – he’s twice European Champion, so he passes down all his knowledge. So it’s very good and he’s exceptional, so I’m learning a lot from him.

Who’s been your most infl uential coach to date?

I’ve got two. Paul Green, who we’ve just mentioned, because he’s just exceptional. He’s won loads and even though he’s retired, he still trains just for fun all the time and is just so hard. He’s got an amazing attitude. And also Sarah Stevenson, the fi rst ever British Olympic medallist.

When you’ve fi nished competing, would you like to take up coaching yourself?

I’ve thought about that since I was really little. You know, I want to do it but hopefully that’s in a really, really long time because I want to get all my medals; Olympic medals and World Championships fi rst!

Jade is supported by Sport Wales’ Talent Cymru funding scheme for elite athletes and through several Community Chest grants, Matrix Taekwondo’s WTF brand of martial arts is fl ourishing in North East Wales.

If you would like to get involved in taekwondo, fi nd out more at www.matrix-taekwondo.co.uk. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52