BRITISH Olympic chief Bill Sweeney insists the association worked “really hard” to keep Aaron Cook on board — but the 24-year-old was set on changing his nationality and competing for Moldova at the 2016 Olympics.

Dorchester athlete Cook, who was overlooked for the Great Britain taekwondo squad at London 2012, applied for citizenship earlier this month after receiving funding from Moldovan billionaire Igor Iuzefovici and has already received his passport from the eastern European state.

The British Olympic Assoc-iation (BOA) announced on Thursday morning that they had ratified the 24-year-old’s move — issuing a statement to confirm the news.

Lutalo Muhammed was selected instead of Cook and won a bronze medal at London 2012, but Sweeney says the door was open for the county town competitor “We are very disappointed,” the BOA chief executive told BBC Radio Five.

“He is world number one and Olympic-ranked number two. He is a great athlete and we are saddened to lose an athlete of that calibre who is British.

“For him to move from his country of birth and home nation to represent another country — we are disappointed.

“I can promise you we have been working really hard not only in recent months but for a long time now, both with Aaron and his representatives and British Taekwondo. It has been well documented that there have been some difficulties in that relationship that go back to pre-2012.

“We have been looking to find a solution where we could broker that deal. We have worked hard to make sure there is a robust and fair selection policy in place. He was the name quota athlete to go to the Baku European Games in June but in his mind he feels his best opportunity to get to the Olympic Games in 2016 is with another country.”

Cook, who fought for Team GB at Beijing 2008, announced his intention to change nationality in a statement on Facebook at the start of April, saying: ‘’Although I am upset and disappointed I will not represent my country of birth at another major championships, I felt I had no other option.”

Jeremy Beard, the chairman of GB Taekwondo, said in a statement: “Having secured his place at the upcoming European Games, we are naturally disappointed that Aaron Cook does not wish to represent Great Britain in Baku, nor at the Olympic Games in Rio."

Cook has previously said he hopes to represent Moldova for the first time at the inaugural Baku European Games in June.