KEIGHLEY taekwondo star Leah Moorby was frustrated in her bid to compete in the Spanish Open.

The Oakbank School pupil's efforts to get to Europe were kiboshed by the French air traffic controllers' strike, which led to her flight being cancelled.

The action also prevented other Britons from getting to the event and halted what has been a fine start to the year for Moorby, who reached the final of the Dutch Open last month and was confident of collecting another medal.

The Spanish Open was named by GB Taekwondo as a selection criteria event for the Junior European Championships in Latvia later this year.

It was an important part of Moorby's preparations for what she hopes will be a third GB appearance following her success in the Cadet Europeans in 2013 and her world bronze medal in Taiwan last year.

Moorby's gold medals in the British and Commonwealth Championships are also part of the European selection criteria, which puts the Keighley black belt in a strong position.

But she was wanting to add valuable ring time as part of her training plan and her father Gary said: "We tried in vain to get another flight but to no avail.

"Leah was desperately disappointed as she has trained very well and, with her success in Holland only a few weeks ago, she was keen to keep the momentum going.

"The final selection event is the Austrian Open in Innsbruck at the end of May, so hopefully Leah can build on her success there last year as she won bronze in her first year in the junior category."