British athletes claimed a hat-trick of golds at the Taekwondo Belgian Open as Olympic silver medallist Lauren Williams, double bronze medallist Bianca Walkden and Caden Cunningham all topped the podium.
Williams claimed silver at Tokyo 2020 in the -67kg weight category and began her day with an effortless 38-2 first-round win over Austrian Kathrin Jirka before beating Spain’s Carlota Zanoni Piaget 16-4 in the quarter-final.
The 23-year-old came through a much sterner semi-final test 8-3 against France’s Althea Laurin to book her shot at gold.
And she came away with the No.1 prize after a ruthlessly dominant performance in the final, defeating another French woman in Bintou Diakite 33-14.
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— GB Taekwondo 🇬🇧 (@GBTaekwondo) March 19, 2022
The trio 🔥#Taekwondo #BelgianOpen pic.twitter.com/tUmiJJGtKd
Triple world champion Walkden breezed past home favourite Sila Erdin and Dutch ace Reshmie Oogink to make the semi-final.
The +73kg star was not required to fight to make it into the showpiece after Marlene Jahl withdrew and she took full advantage of the extra rest, fittingly taking top spot in golden point after a narrow 6-4 win over France’s Solene Avoulette.
Fresh from bagging silver in the -87kg division at the Sofia Open in Bulgaria earlier this month, young gun Cunningham went one better in Lommel.
It has not even been 12 months since the 19-year-old from Huddersfield claimed his first senior medal but he is certainly making his presence felt on the circuit.
Cunningham beat Spain’s Lucas Sanchez 15-2 before recording a 9-4 triumph over Slovakia’s Partik Divkovic to sail into the semi-finals.
The West Yorkshire fighter dispatched Canada’s Jordan Stewart 14-9 and then kickstarted the British gold rush with an 8-3 win over Spain’s Raul M. Garcia.
Elsewhere, double Olympic champion Jade Jones missed out on the medals after exiting at the quarter-final stage after an agonising 23-22 defeat to Spanish fighter Arlet O.Benito.