Chance to shine for 'other' members of the GB Taekwondo Academy at this weekend's National Championships

By Steven Oldham

This weekend in Manchester, the National Taekwondo Championships take place at the National Cycling Centre in SportCity.

Over 600 competitors are due to take part, but only four of them are from the elite national set up: Olympic bronze medallist Lutalo Muhammad, 2011 National Champion Andrew Deer, teenager George Lee and a fit again Stephanie Allen.

While some newer fans to the sport may be disappointed that London 2012 champion Jade Jones and fellow Olympian Martin Stamper are not competing, along with prolific Open medal winners Bianca Walkden,  Michael Harvey, Reubyn Richards and Damon Sansum, it does give a chance for the 'forgotten' talents in the GB squad to take their chance in the spotlight.

Let's be realistic here - we're not talking about Muhammad, who will be among the favourites to claim a first national title in the -87kg despite an earlier than expected departure from the World Chanpionships in the last 16.

Deer, champion in this competition two years ago, has not scaled the same heights in competition since. Unfortunately he was a spare part in the battle for Olympic qualification, seemingly never really in contention for the one slot available.  As the Aaron Cook saga dragged on, Deer's name rarely appeared as a contender. 

At 26, he is by no means past it, but will be looking to hit the ground running and the small field entering from the national team gives him an opportunity to take the headlines once again.

18-year-old George Lee is definitely one for the future and could prove a real contender to the established Stamper, Harvey and Jordan Gayle in years to come in the lightweight category.  Having picked up his first senior medal in Sweden earlier this year, he will be looking to make a mark on the national set up and put himself in early contention for Rio 2016.

Finally, Stephanie Allen is only one year younger than fellow +73kg fighter Walkden but has a lot of ground to catch up.  Since missing out on qualification for London 2012, Bianca has mostly been in good form, picking up numerous Open victories across Europe. She's also a three time British Open winner.  Allen and Walkden appear to be the only two contenders in their weight class to be top girl since Sarah Stevenson's retirement and Stephanie needs to take advantage of her rival's absence this weekend.

Good luck to all the competitors this weekend. It's scandalous that taekwondo still doesn't get any TV time, even on Eurosport or the BBC Red Button, so I'll be following @TeamGBTaekwondo on Twitter for updates.

Follow me while you're there @spoldham