BRITISH champion Jacob Barnett won two of his bouts at the 43rd Dutch Open in Eindhoven, but it was his third fight that he lost that he took most satisfaction from.

The 20-year-old Quest Taekwondo from Baildon notched comfortable victories in the G1-ranking championships against opponents from Austria and the Predator UK squad in the -68kg category.

However, the Leeds Beckett University student's best performance came against Russian No 2 and world-ranked No 19 Konstantin Minin.

The former Youth Olympics runner-up, European Championship quarter-finalist and World President's Cup semi-finalist took a 3-0 lead in the first round but Barnett showed composure and maturity to bring it back in the second round.

In the next round, Barnett took the lead when the Russian was given a second warning, and both athletes worked skilfully, but the difference was the head kick that the Russian delivered in the last 20 seconds.

Barnett came close several times to getting the lead back but the Russian took the match 6-4 and went on to defeat Great Britain national team manager Michael Harvey, a Beijing Olympian and European champion, 9-5 to take a bronze medal.

With the Dutch Open being a selection event for the European Championships on May 19-22 in Montreux, France, and with the Olympic Games in Rio drawing ever closer, over 1,000 competitors took part overall, including 52 in Barnett's category, meaning that the finalists would have had six bouts each.

Barnett said: "I was very happy with my performance against one of the best, and disappointed not to have come away with a medal but I have learnt valuable lessons and this puts me in good stead for upcoming competitions."

Quest Taekwondo sent seven athletes to Eindhoven, and Mike McKenzie, World Quest Taekwondo's founder and taekwondo sport manager at the London Olympics, said: "In total Quest took two golds and one silver but what was most impressive was the performances of the entire team, every one of them being international class.

"The Quest team has had shows of strength in the Ultimate and All Stars 1-1s, took third place at the Children's International Open and now comes this amazing success in the Netherlands!"