Taekwondo: Team GB's Jade Jones to fight for gold medal

 

Jim van Wijk
Thursday 09 August 2012 21:04 BST
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British taekwondo fighter Jade Jones will go for Olympic gold tonight after stunning world number one Tseng Li-Cheng of Chinese Taipei 10-6 in their women's under-57kg featherweights semi-final at ExCeL.

Jones, 19, produced a late rally to land her trademark headkick which capped a quite remarkable Olympic debut.

South Arena 1 was in full voice as the 19-year-old from Flintshire walked out to a sea of Union Flags as 'London Calling' blasted over the airwaves.

The Wales teenager, world silver medallist in 2011, had opened her Olympic debut with an impressive 15-1 victory over Serbian Dragana Gladovi and dispatched Japan's Mayu Hamada 13-3 in the last eight for a shot at the final.

Tseng, however, represented a step up in class.

The world number one scored an early point with a shot to the body and picked off the Briton again to lead 2-0 after the first round.

To her credit, Jones - Youth Olympic champion two years ago - upped the tempo after the restart, and reduced the deficit with a sidekick.

A penalty saw Jones drop 3-2 behind and she then had an appeal for a head shot tuned down by video review.

Spurred on by the home support, Jones then went 5-3 ahead, with the Chinese Taipei fighter then having an appeal for a head kick rejected.

That forced Tseng to attack, which played right into Jones' tactics as she this time connected to the head and pulled off a shock victory as the British crowd erupted.

Liverpool's Martin Stamper had also progressed to the semi-finals of the men's under-68kgs, where he was up Turkish top seed Servet Tazegul, the 2011 world champion and European champion, a bronze medallist from Beijing.

PA

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