European Taekwondo Championships: Jade Jones settles for bronze
- Published
Jade Jones led in the semi-final before a third round comeback by her Polish opponent
Double Olympic champion Jade Jones' bid to win a fourth successive European title ended in disappointment in Manchester.
The Welsh fighter took bronze after losing 27-24 in the semi-final to Poland's Patrycja Adamkiewicz.
"When you get to the top you always want that gold medal," said world champion Jones.
"Sometimes it is all part of the journey towards that gold medal in Paris."
Jones, who blamed anxiety for a shock first-round defeat at last year's Tokyo Games, will bid again for an historic third Olympic gold in France in 2024.
Roared on by a partisan home crowd at Manchester's Regional Arena, Jones beat Croatia's Helena Kicema 25-6 in her opening round and Latvian Inese Tarvida 22-0 in the quarter final of the -57kg competition.
"Taekwondo is hard to constantly get gold medals. I just appreciated having a crowd back with all my family and friends," added Jones.
"I thought I performed really well at the start of the day,
"But you always have to be on your toes. There are so many young ones coming up, you can't switch off for a second.
"I just try to be the hardest worker in the gym; always pushing. Just because I have got gold medals it doesn't mean I can train less; I have to train more."
Fellow north Walian Keira Forsyth also won bronze.
On her European Championship debut, para-fighter Forsyth, from Hope in Flintshire, was beaten 30-0 by Meryem Cavdar of Turkey in the -52kg semi-final.
It follows success for two other Welsh fighters over four days of competition.
Beth Munro, who took silver at last year's Paralympics in Tokyo, defeated Turkey's Secil Er to win gold in the K44 -65kg final.
And Olympic silver medallist Lauren Williams claimed bronze in the women's -67kg category after her run was halted by a 22-9 loss to Magda Wiet Henin of France.
In all, GB Taekwondo finished with nine medals.