Home / Bianca Walkden / Jones Vows To Bounce Back After ‘Stupid’ World Grand Prix Final Loss

Jones Vows To Bounce Back After ‘Stupid’ World Grand Prix Final Loss

Jade Jones (2)

London 2012 golden girl Jade Jones criticised her own performance despite opening the WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix series with a silver medal in Moscow.

The 22-year-old Welsh star lost on golden point to formidable teenage Middle East rival, Kimia Zenoorin, in the -57kg final.

And second place was no silver lining for the frustrated reigning WGP champion, deadlocked at 3-all with Zenoorin after the opening three rounds.

“I am fuming with myself,” confirmed Jones. “My game plan was perfect until I went back a little too much and got caught on the head.

“I made another mistake in golden point which happens. But I know I could have won, should have won.

“A silver medal isn’t what I wanted but it shows I am going in the right direction.”

And Jones was still fuming when she later told her near 50,000 Twitter followers: “Never given a gold medal away so stupidly in my life. Truly disappointed in myself. But thanks so much to everyone who always supports me.”

Jones reached the final with a 16-10 victory over Egypt’s Hedaya Malak after an 11-4 last eight win against dangerous Korean, Sohee Kim. Despite defeat, she remains second in the world rankings and has all but secured Great Britain a -57kg Olympic qualification spot for Rio 2016.

Manchester based Jones was one of three GB Taekwondo medallists in the Russian capital. While there was disappointment and early exits for the 2015 World Championship silver medallist, Damon Sansum, and European Games gold medallist, Charlie Maddock, teammates, Bianca Walkden and Mahama Cho returned to form in their respective heavyweight divisions.

World title holder Walkden from Liverpool, also agonisingly beaten on golden point, and Londoner Cho, an inaugural WGP champion in December 2013, collected bronze medals at +67kg and +80kg respectively. Walkden’s semi-final conqueror, Nafia Kus, went onto claim gold while Dimitriy Shokin of Uzbekistan claimed the +80kg crown from Russian Vladislav Larin.

The second leg of the Grand Prix circuit takes the planet’s best to Samsun in Turkey from September 18-20 before Manchester hosts event three at the National Squash Centre from October 16-18.

To catch Jones and Co fighting on home territory for the last time before next year’s Olympics, take in the action at Manchester’s edition of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix this October. Tickets are now on sale at www.ticketmaster.co.uk/wtgp

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