His victory in the 2023 Taekwondo World Championships men’s under-68kg category final meant he had regained the title he first won on the home ground of Manchester in 2019.

That first global title for a British male taekwondo athlete, achieved by Sinden at the age of 20, raised high hopes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Where Britain had looked to female athletes such as Jade Jones, Bianca Walkden and Sarah Stevenson to bring home global medals, now they had a male athlete as a serious contender.

"The girls are so dominant in the sport, so the men need to step up our competition," Sinden said. "I want to come home with the first British men's Olympic gold medal."

The pioneering young athlete from Doncaster came agonisingly close to his ambition, a year later than planned when Tokyo 2020 was postponed to 2021.

With just eight seconds remaining of his men's under 68-kilograms final against Uzbekistan's 19-year-old Ulugbek Rashitov, the Briton led by two points.

At this point the 17th-seeded Rashitov, who had beaten South Korean idol and number one seed Lee Dae-hoon in the round-of-16, produced an audacious swivelling kick to the head followed by one to the body, thus creating his own two-point lead.

After a flurry of activity to regain the initiative, Sinden was penalised and ended up losing 34-29.

As the Uzbek camp rose in jubilation, Sinden sank disconsolately to the mat in the Makuhari Messe Hall.

Sinden, who had defeated China's formidable third seed Shuai Zhao 33-25 in his semi-final, said: "I made a mistake, as he came forward I saw that he'd stumbled, and I didn't think he would be able to attack and fair play to him he took advantage of that."

He re-grouped. He returned. And more gold arrived.

In May 2022 Sinden claimed his first senior European gold on home soil at the European Taekwondo Championships in Manchester.

He had previously won European bronze and silver and this time round he ensured he topped the podium with an 18-8 victory over Spain’s Javier Pérez Polo in the men’s under-68 kilograms event.

"Coming into this tournament people were always talking about my nickname-Mr Consistency," Sinden said.

"They said you’ve got bronze, you’ve got silver now it’s time to get gold.

"I’ve not had the best year and had a few injuries and setbacks.

"I haven’t had as much training but I am confident in my ability to get in there and perform every time."

The truth of that was borne out later that year, as he earned a world silver in Guadalajara.

And this year, silver turned to gold.

Sinden claimed his second men's under-68kg world title in impressive fashion.

His first match against Russia's Ilia Danilov, competing as a neutral, was the only one that required three rounds as the Olympic silver medallist defeated Arven Alcantara of the Philippines, Théo Lucien of France and Egypt's Eyad Barakat to reach the last four.

In the semi-finals, the 24-year-old Sinden edged out Iran's Matin Rezaei 15-13 in the first round, then proved too strong in the second with a decisive 21-5 win.

Sinden faced South Korea's world number six Jin Ho-jun in the final, which followed a similar pattern to his previous match.

He narrowly won the first round 3-2, then applied the pressure in the second for a 16-9 win and the title.

Now Paris 2024 looms. What will he do there?