You might not know it yet, but over a two-week period in four years time, taekwondo could become your new favourite sport.

As unlikely as that sounds, it's the target for organisers of the sport in this country when London hosts the Olympics in 2012.

The first steps towards that were made over the weekend when the inaugural taekwondo British Open was staged at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.

And if it is to catch the public's imagination, Manchester was certainly a good place to start.

The city has been the bedrock of British cycling's success, which culminated in an outstanding Beijing Games for Team GB.

The eight golds amassed were a direct legacy of the National Cycling Centre and over two weeks in August the names of Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton became as much a part of the national consciousness as Wayne Rooney or David Beckham.

The paradigm has been set by cycling, and if taekwondo is to have any chance of emulating its success it must tap into the interest generated in Beijing.

While the cyclists took the plaudits, British taekwondo made huge strides at the Games.

Winning its first Olympic medal, there was also the emergence of poster boy and girl on which the sport's authorities can pin its recruitment drive over the next four years.

At 17, Aaron Cook will be a major medal hope in London after taking fourth place in Beijing while Sarah Stevenson's bronze may have done more than anything to push the sport into the limelight.

Won in controversial circumstances when the result of her heavyweight bout against double Olympic champion Chen Zhong was reversed, her success has become an issue of concern for sport's authorities.

In taekwondo points are scored when they are acknowledged by three of four judges, sitting at each corner of the mat.

Despite Stevenson splitting the lip of her opponent with a kick in the final stages of her contest, it was only registered by two judges. Following television replays, the result was overturned, allowing Stevenson to continue in the competition and take bronze.

Now there are plans to move towards electronic scoring, which should avoid such farcical episodes in the future.

Competitor

However, an incident of great embarrassment for the sport may prove to be its biggest ally in helping interest in it swell over here.

"Sarah's medal was one of the most controversial incidents in Olympic history, so everyone knows about taekwondo now," said Andrew Link, Operations Director of British Board of Control.

"In Aaron we also had the second youngest competitor for Great Britain behind Tom Dailly.

"Right now Sarah and Aaron are the poster boy and girl, but after the World Championships next year there will be many more poster boys coming through."

Like cycling Manchester is home to British taekwondo with the national academy based in the city for the past 18 months.

Should it receive sufficient funding the BTBC is proposing a purpose-built national centre which would very much follow the lead set by cycling.

"We are the little brothers of cycling, but we cannot follow their route entirely because we are a combat sport," said Link.

"But one of the main examples we can take from them is funding, which is why we have made an application for a new national centre.

"We want it for the highest level of the sport, but also want it to be a facility for the community to build from the grass roots."

Neither Stevenson nor Cook took part, though both were in attendance in ambassadorial capacis.

Olympian Michael Harvey took second place in the bantamweight category after losing to Abdolrezay Davoud from Iran.

But there was British success for Louise Mair who took victory in the Fin class while the Great Britain National Team finished in first place in the points table ahead of Korea.