SILSDEN'S Jamie Kidd has won the London Open for the third time.

The 13-year-old Horizon Taekwondo Academy member, who was without a domestic gold medal so far this year, put that right at Lee Valley Athletics Centre.

In a club haul that also included six silver medals and seven bronzes on a day that ran from 8.45am to 10.30pm, he defeated Liverpool Academy's Cameron Murphy 14-12 in a fierce semi-final of the -53kg cadet 12-14 category before winning in style 16-8 against Aaron McCardle of South Hams.

Ilkley Grammar School pupil Jamie has also won the Keumgang Open in Belgium and was a bronze medallist at the USA Open, both earlier this year, but his best previous domestic result in 2015 was a silver medal at the Dome Open in Doncaster the weekend prior to London.

Over 500 competitors from across the UK, as well as Belgium, Holland and Norway, took part, but injury denied Silsden's Ellie Rayer the chance of gold as she had to pull out after convincingly winning her senior 18 plus semi-final.

Ellie therefore defaulted to silver, while Kidd's fellow Great Britain team member Ellie Bowden, from Cullingworth, won bronze after a 1-0 defeat to team-mate Kristina Lees in the semi-final of the -52kg junior group.

Other bronze medallists were Keighley's Cara Harbourne (children -11) and Courtney Smith (cadet 12-14) and Silsden's Charlotte Banks (junior 15-17).

Horizon coach Rick Simpson, a Master black-belt 5th Dan, said: "This was a real tough test for our athletes, especially the younger ones.

"Not just the test of competing against top athletes, but also an endurance test for keeping focus all day and having the will and determination to still put in 100 per cent when their matches finally came up.

"I'm really pleased for Jamie, as it's his first domestic gold of the year after narrowly missing out a couple of times, but I'm really proud of them all – some real talents coming through the ranks, epitomised by performances from Courtney Smith and Elli Rayer, both new to the team, who battled real hard in their matches.

"Courtney and Cara were unlucky to have been moved up weight groups at the tournament, but they just got on with it and had a go, being brave and facing their fears – they gave it their best and would have got a better result in their natural weight groups.

"Some of our athletes will be going away for a week in August for a high performance training camp in Belgium, where they'll be joined by some of the top sides from around Europe, including some national teams.

"That'll give them some invaluable new experience to share with the team and sharpen them up before the big one – the British National Championships, taking place on September 12-13 in Manchester."

Horizon Taekwondo Academy also provided five officials to help run the tournament, including centre referee Natalie Kidd from Silsden.