World Taekwondo Championships 2017: Great Britain's Jade Jones takes bronze

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Media caption,

Bronze for Jones after narrow semi-final defeat

World Taekwondo Championships

Venue: T1 Arena, Muju, South Korea Dates: 24-30 June

Coverage: BBC Red Button, connected TV and online

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones took a bronze medal in the World Taekwondo Championships after losing in the semi-finals to Lee Ah-reum on Friday.

The Welsh fighter, 24, was beaten 14-8 by the home favourite in South Korea.

There were also bronze medals for Bradly Sinden and Damon Sansum on the final day of competition in Muju.

It means the British team have gained a record five medals at the 2017 Worlds, beating their previous best of four, achieved in 2011.

Jones, who won a world silver in 2011, was guaranteed a bronze for reaching the -57kg semi-finals - but her wait to complete a career grand slam continues.

She holds the European Championships, European Games and World Grand Prix titles.

"Sometimes you lose and I just have to go away from here and train hard get better," Jones told BBC Sport.

"I'm obviously saving it for the big occasion in Manchester for the Worlds [in 2019].

"I just wasn't me. I didn't fight as well as I normally fight and I just didn't pressure enough. I didn't do enough."

Bronze for Britons

Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,

Sinden beat defending champion Jaouad Achab on his way to a bronze medal

Former European junior champion Sinden took bronze in the -63kg category after losing his semi-final to China's Zhao Shuai 29-43.

The 18-year-old, ranked 62 in the world, had qualified for the last four by beating the defending world champion in the division, Belgium's Jaouad Achab.

"I know I've still got a lot of work to do, but seeing as I've only been in the academy for 11 months and it's my first senior World champs, to come away with a medal is a great feeling," said Sinden.

Sansum secured bronze after winning through to the -80kg semi-finals, but was defeated on golden point by Russia's Anton Kotkov.

The former Scottish world kickboxing champion, who won world taekwondo silver in 2015, defeated Nurlan Myrzabayev of Kazakhstan 21-8 in the quarter-finals.

The world number 104 had knocked out the Olympic champion Cheick Cisse in the previous round.

"I'm gutted at the moment because I knew I could win gold today," he told BBC Sport.

"Coming back from the devastation of missing out on selection for Rio 2016 and then having surgery on both hips in January of this year has been tough.

"With that in mind, I have to take some positives from the result - and from getting a second successive World medal, which no GB man has done before. But I'll be back fighting for gold next time."

Former Team GB fighter Aaron Cook, who defected to Moldova after his controversial omission from the London 2012 Olympic squad, was also eliminated in the -80kg semi-final to finish with bronze.

Rachelle Booth won bronze at the last World Championships in 2015, but there was to be no repeat of that success.

After a bye in the first round, she opened her account with a 17-11 win over China's Zhou Meiling, but Ivory Coast fighter Ruth Gbagbi proved too strong - winning their round-of-16 encounter 15-6.

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