Lauren Williams hunts glory at taekwondo World Grand Prix

The 23-year-old will go for glory in the north west of England as part of the Great Britain team plotting towards the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Williams won silver at the Tokyo Games after being agonisingly close to being on top of the podium. She was leading with 14 seconds of the final left only for Croatia’s Matea Jelic to deny her gold.

It means the Welsh fighter has added steel in the bid to be the best in the -67kg category in France in two years.

HUNGRY: Lauren Williams wants Olympic gold (Image: Press Association)

"It was devastating," said Williams, who competes on Saturday. "I am always proud of a silver medal, but I won't ever get over it.

"I didn't get the result I wanted in Tokyo, so Paris has been on my radar ever since.

"I also still don't feel like I've been to an Olympics because of the way it was. There was no crowd, it was literally just turn up, go to the hotel, fight and come home, we didn't even go to the village.

"That's helped in a way because I don't feel like I've lost out on my dream yet, because I've not actually lived and competed in it."

Williams is relishing an event on home soil in a busy schedule that features next month’s World Championships in Mexico and December’s Grand Prix finals in China.

"It's one of the best Grand Prix events, the crowd does bring the atmosphere and gives everyone that little buzz," said Williams.

"It is incredible and hopefully we will come out with some success."

The four-day event includes a Paralympic tournament with GB stars Bianca Cook, formerly Walkden, Jade Jones and Bradly Sinden among the contenders.

“This is a very decent team of elite and experienced fighters with new and developing athletes,” said GB Taekwondo performance director Gary Hall.

“We have had some encouraging results in the Grand Prix events this year and with home advantage hopefully we can produce even better results.”