EMELYE O'Brien and Leah Moorby have been named among a powerful group of Fighting Chance taekwondo graduates.

Bradford battler O'Brien, a former European karate gold medallist, and Moorby of Keighley are part of an intake of 14 competitors from 282 who originally applied to join the GB Academy in Manchester.

GB Taekwondo chief Gary Hall has described the elite group, who started their full time training this week, as "one of the strongest we have had".

The initiative, delivered by GB Taekwondo in partnership with UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport, is aimed at fast-tracking 15-24 year-olds into the world of high-performance sport and is now in its fourth edition.

Lutalo Muhammad, an Olympic silver medallist in Rio last year, plus 2015 World Championship medallists Damon Sansum and Rachelle Booth, are all former Fighting Chance graduates.

"After the Rio Olympic cycle, we began another search for athletes through the Fighting Chance initiative," explained Hall.

"Of the 282 applicants, we narrowed it down to 40. Those 40 were all screened during a long boot camp before we arrived at the 14 who are now joining the Academy.

"This group is really strong. We have done it four times and this has got to be one of the strongest intakes we have had.

"They will go on a three-month programme, including participation in the Austrian Open, to see how they perform. If they are really making progress in the system, then we will continue with them."

Hall is delighted to see 17-year-old Moorby, a former European junior bronze medallist and GB Taekwondo's 2015 junior female athlete of the year, take another step on her taekwondo journey.

He said: "Leah has already excelled in the younger age groups and has committed a lot of time to the junior development programme. This is the next leg of her development."