The Manchester Central Convention Complex will be the venue for the three-day eventn due to place from Friday (October 24) to Sunday (October 26).

A total of 237 top athletes from 59 countries are expected to compete for honours, including four female and six male athletes that have tasted Olympic success.

The most popular champion on show will likely be Great Britain's London 2012 gold medallist Jade Jones, who will be competing in the under 57 kilogram category.

The 21-year-old will be keen to take advantage of home soil to secure her first ever Grand Prix win after losing out Spain's Eva Calvo Gomez on golden point in the final of the last event in Astana, Kazakhstan, in August.

Both athletes contested the final in Manchester last year, with the Spaniard taking victory in what was a controversial bout after Jones had, what looked like a perfectly good scoring strike ruled out by judges, allowing Gomez to take a 4-3 win.

Fellow London 2012 gold medal winners Kyung-seon Hwang of South Korea, who also claimed gold at Beijing 2008, and Serbia's Milica Mandic will be the athletes to beat in the under 67kg and over 67kg classes.

Mandic will also be up against Beijing 2008 gold medallist Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico.

Briton Jade Jones (right) will be looking to make up for losing out to Spaniard Eva Calvo Gomez in last year's Grand Final in Manchester ©Getty Images



London 2012 bronze medallist Lucija Zaninovic of Croatia won the under 49kg category last time out in Astana and will once again be expected to feature at the business end in Manchester alongside the likes of South Korean Jaeah Kim, Chinese Taipei's Lin Wan-Ting and Ukrainian Ganna Soroka.

There will also be a star-studded line-up across the four men's weight divisions.

Turkey's reigning Olympic champion Servet Tazegul leads the entries in the under 68kg class where his biggest test is likely to come from Astana Grand Prix winner Alexey Denisenko of Russia.

Chinese Taipei's Chen Yang Wei claimed gold in the under 58kg decider against Farzan Ashour Zadeh Fallah of Iran last time out and they will be joined in Manchester by Spain's London 2012 champion Joel Gonzalez Bonilla.

Steven Lopez of the United States and Argentina's Sebastian Crismanich, gold medallists at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 respectively, will be the men to beat in the under 80kg division.

Lopez will be keen to atone for what happened in Astana when he was forced to pull out of the final against Iranian Mehdi Khodabakhsh due to injury.

American Steven Lopez (left) could not compete in the final last time out in Astana due to injury and will be aiming to go all the way in Manchester ©Getty Images



Mahama Abdoufatah Cho will also be looking to build on the backing of the home crowd after the Briton went down to Frenchman M'bar N'Diaye on golden point last time out in the over 80kg category.

Both will have to get over two formidable obstacles though in the form of Beijing 2008 champion Dong-min Cha of South Korea and London 2012 gold medal winner Carlo Molfetta of Italy.

All eight winners in Manchester will pick up a winners cheque of $5,000 (£3,000//€4,000).

Silver medallists will receive $3,000 (£2,000/€2,500) while $1,000 (£650/€800) will be awarded to bronze medal winners.

Manchester is the third stop on this year's Grand Prix Series following events in Suzhou, China, and Astana.

The Series Final is scheduled to take place in Querétaro, Mexico, on December 13 and 14.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related Stories
August 2014: Olympic champion Jones denied gold on final day of Taekwondo Grand Prix in Astana
August 2014: Guo upsets Johansson to take gold at Taekwondo Grand Prix in Astana
August 2014: France, Croatia and US strike gold on first day of Astana taekwondo Grand Prix
December 2013: Inaugural World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Manchester judged "huge success" by WTF chief
December 2013: Jones has to settle for silver after controversial final at World Taekwondo Grand Prix