London Olympics 2012: European taekwondo champion Aaron Cook in fight to make Olympics But, despite Mohammed's rich potential, the decision to choose him above the more experienced Cook has caused shockwaves in the sport. Cook, 21, who is one of the Telegraph 10 for 2012, came within one point of making the final on his Olympic debut at the age of 17 in Beijing in 2008. Since then, he has won back-to-back European titles and will be No 1 in the world when the new global rankings are published next month. He defeated the previous No 1, Azerbaijan's Ramin Azizov, to retain his European crown. To add to the controversy, concerns have been raised that Cook's omission is politically motivated because of his decision to quit GB Taekwondo's high-performance set-up a year ago. Having suffered a loss of form that culminated in his first-round exit at the World Championships, Cook cut all ties with GB Taekwondo - a decision that meant sacrificing his Lottery funding. He complained that the governing body had not been providing him with adequate sparring partners and that he was being used to help improve other GB fighters rather than developing himself. His selection appeal means the British Olympic Association was forced to postpone Friday's scheduled announcement of the four GB taekwondo athletes for London 2012 until an unspecified date. It is understood that the final selection deadline imposed by the World Taekwondo Federation is in early July. Technically, governing bodies such as GB Taekwondo can only "nominate" athletes for Team GB and the final say on selection lies with the BOA. That means the BOA could, in theory, overrule any nominations, though it is highly unlikely that it would go against the decision of an independent arbitration hearing.