91Èȱ¬

Image source, Getty Images

Britons Caden Cunningham reached the taekwondo semi-finals on his Olympic debut but compatriot Rebecca McGowan lost in the quarter-finals.

Cunningham, hailed as the future of the sport by two-time GB bronze medallist Bianca Walkden, came through a cagey fight against Cuba's Rafael Alba to win 2-1.

It had been 0-0 in the last round of the best-of-three fight, but Cunningham picked up four points in the final 10 seconds to secure victory.

He will face Cheick Cisse of the Ivory Coast from 15:36 BST for a shot at the gold-medal match.

McGowan, also making her Olympic debut, was outclassed 2-0 by Svetlana Osipova of Uzbekistan in the women's +67kg.

Great Britain have won a taekwondo medal at every Olympics since Athens in 2004, but have struggled in Paris.

Favourite Bradly Sinden had to withdraw injured before his men's -68kg bronze medal match, while two-time gold medallist Jade Jones suffered another early defeat in the women's -57kg.

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisia's Firas Katoussi and Viviana Marton of Hungary picked up Paris 2024 taekwondo golds at the Grand Palais on Friday.

Marton, the 18-year-old 12th seed, stunned third seed Aleksandra Perisic of Serbia 2-0 in straight rounds to take gold in the women's -67kg.

The bronze medals were won by American Kristina Teachout and Sarah Chaari of Belgium.

In the men's -80kg final, Katoussi made history by becoming his country's first Olympic champion in taekwondo by beating Iran's Mehran Barkhordari 2-0 in the gold-medal contest.

Italy's Simone Alessio and Denmark's Edi Hrnic were the bronze medal winners in that category.

Image source, Getty Images

Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashitov defended his Olympic men's -68kg taekwondo title with a decisive 2-0 win over Jordan’s Zaid Kareem who claimed silver.

In the bronze-medal matches, Brazil's Edival Pontes defeated Spain's Javier Perez Polo 2-1 and China's Liang Yushuai was given a walkover after opponent Bradly Sinden of Great Britain withdrew with a knee injury.

In the women's -57kg, South Korea's Kim Yujin took gold with a 2-0 win over Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh.

Skylar Park of Canada won bronze, as did Bulgaria's Kimia Alizadeh.

Alizadeh won bronze at Rio 2016 for Iran and also competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo where she finished fifth.

Great Britain's Jade Jones' bid for a third Olympic title was ended in the first round by Macedonia's Miljana Reljikj.

Double Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones has spoke of her devastation after exiting the Paris Games in the first round of women's -57kg taekwondo.

Jones was beaten by North Macedonia's Miljana Reljikj in a third round tie-breaker .

The 31-year-old from Flint had set her sights on becoming the first three-time Olympic champion in the sport's history.

"I’m absolutely devastated," she told 91Èȱ¬ Sport Wales after the bout.

"I clawed my way back to have this chance to be at my fourth Olympics, but it always comes down to the day and I didn’t have the balls and courage that it took today.

"I’m really proud of myself for having the courage to try and do something that no one has done and it’s tough, it’s mentally tough, that’s why no one has done it before.

"The more you win, the harder it gets, the more expectation and pressure. When you’re a kid you’ve got nothing to lose and you just fight.

"I’m gutted for me, my coach, my family that I didn’t show what I’ve worked so hard for, didn’t show what I was capable of in my body and mind, but it’s sport and it’s life, I couldn’t do it."

Jones' Olympic build-up had been overshadowed by the controversy of a missed drugs tests, but she was later cleared by the UK Anti-Doping Agency.

"The preparation was tough, but I was really grateful they looked into it the way they did," she added.

"The drug test came on dehydration day, I was losing the weight and kind of not in the right frame of mind.

"I got confused with it all, so I’m just so lucky that they looked into it and saw nothing was wrong and it all got sorted. It was stressful."