Jade Jones’ Olympic medal hopes dashed at first hurdle

Jade Jones’ dream of emulating her 2012 and 2016 Olympic triumphs came to an end as she fell at the first hurdle of the women’s -57kg taekwondo competition at the Grand Palais in Paris.

The 31-year-old was edged out by North Macedonian Miljana Reljikj in her round of 16.

Her chances of a place in the repechage also evaporated when Reljikj was eliminated in the next round.

Jones came to Paris under a cloud having escaped a ban for failing to submit to a drug test in December last year, with the UK Anti-Doping Agency ruling that she bore “no fault or negligence for the missed test” due to “loss of cognitive capacity”.

Her tough section of the draw opened up before her as both Kimia Alizadeh, by whom she was beaten three years ago in Tokyo, and Chinese Taipei’s world silver medallist Lo Chia-ling were both beaten in their opening bouts.

But Jones was beaten by the narrowest of margins after the pair shared each of the opening rounds to set up a winner-takes-all third. A low-scoring affair also ended equal, with Reljikj taking the verdict on the basis of having registered more unscored registrations – hits that are not hard enough to score.

Sources close to Jones had insisted she was unaffected by the continuing speculation over the circumstances of her missed drugs test and the reasons why UK Anti-Doping saw fit to allow her to escape a mandatory four-year ban.

But despite an encouraging start, Jones lost the opener after her opponent landed a three-point head-kick in the final five seconds.

Jones edged the second 5-4, but neither contestant could land a significant blow in a cagey decider, before Reljikj had her hand raised.

Jones sat disconsolately on the edge of the ring for a short time before being allowed to by-pass the media mixed zone due to still being in the competition.