Amy Truesdale, The Sentinel/City of Stoke on Trent Female Sports Personality of the Year, will fight for Great Britain at next month’s inaugural WTF Para-Taekwondo Championships.

The event is being held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on June 10, and it is hoped it will help pave the way for taekwondo to become a Paralympic sport at the London 2012 games.

However, it will be the first time Truesdale, a member of the Stoke United Taekwondo Association, has taken part in a competition for disabled fighters.

Although she was born with the lower part of her left arm missing, the 20-year-old from Chester has previously competed against – and beaten –able-bodied fighters.

“I’ve never competed against anyone with the same disability as me, so it will be interesting,” she said. “It’s a big opportunity for me to go out there. I definitely want taekwondo to be on the Paralympic stage, and hopefully this event can help get it recognised.

“The standard in the disability events is just as high as in the able-bodied events. Competitors do the same amount of training and work on the same techniques, it is just they have different disabilities. That’s why events for disabled competitors are a good idea because it gives an equal opportunity to everybody involved.

” Truesdale was selected after British Olympic Taekwondo performance director Gary Hall saw her in action at the national championships in Manchester. She won a bronze in the -63kg category after losing her semifinal to British champion Farren Cummings.

Hall said: “She competes well against able-bodied people, so Baku will be an ideal opportunity for her. This is a developing area for us so I hope the championships will help promote the sport.”