HAVING finished ninth in last month's National Taekwondo Championships, Horizon Taekwondo Academy confirmed their status as West Yorkshire's leading sparring team by finishing third at the Yorkshire Open at Bradford's Richard Dunn Sports Centre, and came tantalisingly close to coming first.

NTC (Nottingham) and Team Ultimate (Doncaster) claimed the two major podium team places in a field of 47 clubs from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Holland and Ireland, with more than 300 competitors taking part.

Horizon won two gold medals, nine silvers and six bronzes, and leading the way was Cullingworth's Ellie Bowden.

The 13-year-old extended her unbeaten domestic run to 13 months by defeating fellow Great Britain cadet Alex Turner in the final of the -44kg cadet advanced group.

Ellie had earlier despatched Chloe Lo (Sport Taekwondo Ireland) 21-0 and Meliz Hassan (Tiger Taekwondo Academy) 12-0 in what was an excellent build-up to the Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow on November 15-16.

Horizon's other gold medallist was fellow British national champion Huseyn Mikayilov from Rochdale, the 14-year-old triumphing in the cadet -45kg group.

Among the silver medallists were Cara Harbourne (Keighley), Hannah Priestley (Cullingworth), Emily Owen (Shipley), Baildon's Alfie Dyer and Adam Cassere, Paige Harris (Cottingley), Gary Watt (Greengates) and Hannah Perry (Bradford), while bronze medallists were Baildon's James Neill and Luke Cassere, Keighley's Inaya Ahmed, Ilkley's Lucas Degregorio, Silsden's Jamie Simpson-Kidd and Shipley's Abbiegail Owen.

Quarter-finalists were Saara Ahmed (Keighley), Kisler Flores (Allerton) and Zak Spencer (Baildon), while Inaya Ahmed (Keighley) and Jamie Simpson-Kidd (Silsden) were bronze medallists.