Following the most successful World Championships in the history of British taekwondo, it's hard not to reflect on how far the sport has come in recent times and to remember that only ten years ago, the elite athlete programme was being developed and managed from the back bedroom of its volunteer performance manager's semi-detached.

I'm pleased to say that, despite a somewhat rocky road on the way to 2011, these are exciting times for GB Taekwondo, the organisation charged with the preparation, management and performance of elite British athletes such as our newly crowned world champion Sarah Stevenson (pictured below) and our Youth Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones.

Over the last nine months or so we have made great strides in terms of improving facilities, infrastructure, public profile and corporate governance. In addition we have continued to liaise closely with Sport England and UK Sport and have secured additional funding for both performance and development whilst Manchester City Council's support in securing our future in their great sporting city is invaluable.

All this of course has taken up a huge amount of management time and it would have been easy to lose sight of our key objective in 2011 which was to deliver World Championship success, and in particular meet our UK Sport target of between one and three medals. As scrutiny increases across all Olympic and Paralympic sports in the build up to 2012, particularly on levels of performance in elite competition, it is important that efforts on the field of play are balanced with the work being done "backstage" to capture this once in a lifetime opportunity to safeguard the future of our respective sports. To deliver on our key objective, whilst moving forward with other activities which are key to the longer term development and security of GB Taekwondo, is credit to all concerned.

Long term sustainability is as important to us as short-term World and Olympic success and whilst our athletes have been challenging the established world order in Gyeongju, Korea, we have been rolling out the first in a number of junior talent initiatives, in partnership with Sport England, in the search for our future stars of 2016 and 2020.

The establishment of a development pathway for the sport alongside other initiatives such as last year's "Fighting Chance" talent transfer programme should ensure that we are well placed to build upon our Olympic bronze won by Stevenson in Beijing in 2008 and any further success next year in London.


It goes without saying that our rapid growth cannot be underpinned by the provision of lottery funds, exchequer and local Government support alone. Our Business Services partner KPMG have provided invaluable support through their CSR programme and have helped our development into what I firmly believe is an extremely attractive proposition for major commercial investors to become involved with a fast growing sport which not is only well placed for success in 2012 but also at a grassroots level provides that magic formula of activity, respect and discipline that is so important to youth development in today's society.

Our GB team are taking a well earned rest before training begins in earnest again in June and we'll see them in action again at our British International Open in Manchester in October.

With the European Championships also scheduled for Manchester next May, just weeks before London's opening ceremony, it's going to be a busy 15 months or so for GB Taekwondo but you can rest assured that we'll continue to keep kicking above our weight.

Jeremy Beard is the chairman of GB Taekwondo