Jade Jones made a medal winning return to international competition at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Morocco tonight. (Sunday)

But another gold medal eluded the double Olympic champion after teammates, Bianca Walkden and Mahama Cho, opened the competition with title winning performances 48 hours earlier.

Jones hadn’t fought since securing bronze at the World Championships in South Korea last June.

But the Welsh star showed little sign of ring rustiness to reach the final of the -57kg final.

However, Jones, the overall World Grand Prix champion in 2014, couldn’t overcome Turkey’s world silver medallist, Hatice Ilgun, and lost 8-6.

In the semi-final the 24-year-old from Flint defeated Serbia’s Marija Stetic 16-7 after guaranteeing a podium finish with a 9-2 last eight success over Portugal’s Joana Cunha.

Peter Longobardi-Radford came close to adding a further medal at -68kg. Instead, he went down 7-6 in his quarter-final bout to Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Jen Huang.

Yorkshireman Bradly Sinden went out in the last 16 of the same division, beaten 18-14 by Mexico’s Saul Gutierrez.

Following the Rabat event, the Grand Prix series now moves to the Copper Box Arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from October 20-22.

Britain’s leading Paralympic star, Amy Truesdale, will also be battling the world’s best at the World Para Taekwondo Championships alongside newcomers, Leif Thobroe, Matt Bush, Joseph Lane and Katy Elay on October 19.

Tickets are now on sale for both events at: Ticketmaster or SeeTickets.

Male:

-68kg

Bradly Sinden

Round one: beat Viacheslav Minin (RUS) 27-6

R16: lost to Saul Gutierrez (MEX) 14-18

Peter Longobardi-Radford

Round one: beat Mirhashem Hosseini (IRI) 20-11

R16: beat Lovre Brecic (CRO) 11-3

Quarter-final: lost to Yu-Jen Huang (TPE) 6-7

Female:

-57kg

Jade Jones

Round one: BYE

R16: beat Ekaterina Kim (RUS) 14-4.

Quarter-final: beat Joana Cunha (POR) 9-2

Semi-final: beat Marija Stetic (CRO) 16-7

Final: lost to Hatice Ilgun (TUR) 6-8