THE COACH of a Barnsley taekwondo club who produced one of the Paris Olympic medalists believes there will be many more to come in the future.
Caden Cunningham from Huddersfield, who took the silver medal in the +80kg category in Paris over the weekend, spent five years training three or four times a week at Barnsley club Quest Taekwondo.
Mike McKenzie, who runs the Oxspring-based club and went to Paris to watch, said: “Caden was with us from 11 until 16 when he moved to Great Britain training centre in Manchester.
“He’s one of the reasons why we moved from Penistone Grammar School to a full-time centre in Oxspring so we could give our students access seven days a week.
“He started at a club in Huddersfield but his parents wanted him to be involved with a more successful club.
“I was messaging him during the closing ceremony. We’re very close.
“He sees himself as a Quest club member and comes back regularly.
“We’re all very proud and it’s absolutely amazing.”
McKenzie, who is from Thurnscoe originally but lives in Penistone now, has been involved in taekwondo for decades and was the event manager at the London 2012 Olympics.
He said: “I started Quest in 1988 after it was a demonstration sport in Seoul.
“I was training seven days a week and not bad at it but I didn’t have a chance of getting to the Olympics.
“My quest since then has been making sure that anyone with the right talent and commitment can go to the Olympics. It has all come to fruition with Caden winning a medal.”
McKenzie says Cunningham always had potential to reach the highest level but was not necessarily the club’s star performer.
“He was part of a group of very talented kids we had at one point.
“He never got ‘player of the year’ for our club, so that shows you how strong that group was.
“He was in contention but we had others who were more successful and it’s based on results. But his potential was obvious.”
Aaliyah Powell, also from Huddersfield, came through at Quest as well and has won three World Championship medals but was not selected for Paris.
Previous Olympic champion Jade Jones was chosen instead and lost in the first world which McKenzie said ‘cost us a medal’.
Alex Foster is a third Quest student to compete for Great Britain.
McKenzie said: “We have had three players make it to world class level and a lot more to come. Every generation is better than the one before.
“I believe Caden and Aaliyah will be favourites to win gold in LA in 2028 then we will have other Quest members in the Olympics in the future.
“It’s very inspirational for our young students to have people at that level to look up to, but they will also see them as people they can beat in the future.”
