The 2nd round of Grand Prix is a three day tournament and 256 athletes are participating and competing to get valid point for access to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Iran or England?
According to a report by World Taekwondo, in the first final of the Grand Prix, Christian McNeish of Team GB took on Iran’s Mirhashem Hosseini in the final. The two would give the crowd a truly superb, ultra high-scoring battle.

The Brit scored first with a body kick as the Iranian advanced, sounding his war cry. Then Hosseini landed a head kick on the counter, felling McNeish and going 4-2 up. McNeish landed a head kick but fell, bring the score to 6-6.More head kicks! More falls! More action! Round 1 ended 11-9 to McNeish.

Round 2 saw intense clinch work with both seeking to land close-in head kicks. The Brit took a 13-9 advantage before the Iranian fell after a punch to the jaw. After a video replay, the board was adjusted to 10-13. In intense action, the scores evened at 13-13, then McNeish finished the round 15-14 up.

In the third, both were still alive with energy. Both landed head kicks and the board hit 19-19. Another punch to the face saw the referee flash his red card as Hosseini struggled to rise. The score was 20-19 to the Iranian. With one minute left, Hosseini went into top gear.

In whirlwind combat, Hosseini went to 25-20, then 27-20, then 31-20 thanks to both head kicks and falls by McNeish. With 25 seconds left, the British coach called a video replay. Denied. McNeish was finally looking tired: he tried a flying kick but fell. Result: Gold to Hosseini with a tremendous 36-20 victory.

Korea’s Dae-hoon Lee and Evival Pontes of Brazil took home bronzes.

The Team is led by Fariborz Askari as the head coach and Ali Mohammad Boshagh as the coach.
This tournament is a G4 one and the gold, silver and bronze medal winners garnish 40, 24, and 14.4 points, respectively and also collect cash prizes of $5000, $3000 and $1000 in turn.
The event help participants collect points to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.