Great Britain’s Caden Cunningham retained his +87kg European title on the opening day of competition at the 2026 European Taekwondo Championships in Munich.

This year’s European Championships, which took place from 11th May – 14th May, saw Cunningham retain his title from the 2024 edition of the event in Belgrade.

On retaining his European Championships title, 23-year-old Cunningham said: “It feels great to have retained my title at the beginning of this Olympic cycle; similar to the last games, I dominated the Europeans leading up to it, so I’m excited.”

After a bye in the round of 32, Cunningham defeated Serbia’s Milos Golubovic in the round of 16 before he came up against Italy’s Mattia Molin in the quarter finals.

Cunningham secured his place in the +87kg men’s final after defeating Belarus’ Artsiom Plonis by PTF 2-0, which the European Taekwondo Union describes as being a ‘win by final score’.

On his matches leading up to the final, Huddersfield-born Cunningham said: “I found those matches useful for some good learning and practice on stuff I’m trying to learn long term, and I felt dominant; I was ready for more fights, more rounds, more challenge.”

In the final Cunningham faced Spain’s Ivan Garcia Martinez, whom he had defeated to claim his 2024 European Championships title, who, similarly to Cunningham, had won all of his previous matches by ‘final score’.

The final, therefore, saw the top two-ranked seeds contend for the title; Cunningham entered the tournament as the top seed, whilst Garcia Martinez was ranked second, which the Briton won by PTF 2-0.

On facing Garcia Martinez in two consecutive European Championships finals, Olympic silver medallist Cunningham said: “Unfortunately after around 90 seconds of fighting he seemed to injure himself, the positive is I was dominant before this and enjoying my time in the ring, I’m sure when we fight again he’ll come with more fire.”

Alongside Cunningham’s title, Great Britain also won a further four medals at the championships including a silver from Lauren Williams and three bronze medals from Rebecca McGowan, Jodie McKew and Matt Howell.

Great Britain also brought home two gold medals in the Para Taekwondo European Championships with Matt Bush succeeding in the K44 Male +80kg category alongside Amy Truesdale in the K44 Female +65kg category.

On Great Britain’s successes at the 2026 European Championships, European Games Krakow 2023 champion Cunningham said: “I think it is a powerful message to the country that we are still a strong nation in this sport and gun for big Olympic Medals, taking a smaller team than usual really helped the right energies and mindsets be present and show on fight day.”

... I’m super excited to get out there and dominate and remind the world why they call me King Caden...

Following on from these Championships, Cunningham will now turn his attention to the 2026 Grand Prix season which will allow him to compete against the world’s best in an ‘elite international taekwondo competition series’.

Across these events, he will be looking to add to his four previous Grand Prix medals which include a gold from 2023 Rome, silver medals from 2023 Paris and 2022 Manchester as well as a bronze from 2022 Rome.

On his plans for the remainder of 2026, 2025 World Championships bronze medallist Cunningham said: “We have the Grand Prix season so we have bigger comps from all over the world so I’m super excited to get out there and dominate and remind the world why they call me King Caden.”

Cunningham will next compete at the Rome WT Grand Prix, between the 5th – 7th June, which will see over 250 athletes from over 50 countries compete in the Italian capital.