Olympic champion Jade Jones suffered World Championship heartache once again as Britain fell agonisingly short of collecting their first two medals in Puebla, Mexico.
Jones, who won taekwondo -57kg gold at London 2012 last summer, cruised her way to the quarter-finals with wins over Sousan Hajipourgoli and Martina Zubcic.
However there she met her match in the form of Japan’s Mayu Hamada, suffering sudden death golden point agony in similar fashion to the last World Championships in South Korea.
On that occasion China’s Hou Yuzhuo got the better of Jones in the gold medal match, while this time Hamada took the point in sudden death to advance and eventually win silver.
Jones had clawed her way back from 2-0 down to take the fight into sudden death against Hamada, who she beat in the quarter-finals at the Olympics last summer.
But it wasn’t to be while fellow Brit Michael Harvey saw his 4-3 lead in the dying seconds of his -63kg quarter-final clash with Stevens Barclais turned into a 7-4 defeat by the Frenchman.
Harvey was clipped by a reverse headshot for the loss but Jones believes the results in Puebla aren’t reflecting Britain’s true form with hopes a medal now lying solely on Damon Sansum.
“She played me really well,” said Jones. “I fought her at the Olympics and beat her convincingly but she came out and played her tactics well.
“She stayed on the opposite stance and cancelled my game out. But I didn’t start well and I should really have come out stronger.
“I was sure I’d caught her with a headshot in the second round and even on the video it looked like it touched. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t given. That’s how this sport goes.
“I’m devastated as I really believed I was in tip-top shape to win. I’m gutted for the team as well as we’ve all trained really hard. The results haven’t been showing that but we will come back fighting.”
© Sportsbeat 2013