Twitter tributes pour in to Jade Jones as two-times Olympic taekwondo champion is knocked out in first round

Two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones has seen her Tokyo 2020 dream come to an abrumpt end.

The 28-year-old Welsh star was hoping to become the first British woman to win gold at three consecutive games, but suffered a surprise defeat in the first round of the contest.

The gold medallist in both London 2012 and Rio 2016, was up against Kimia Alizadeh of the Olympic refugee team who won bronze in Rio 2016 for Iran.

Despite gaining a two-point lead at the start, the match was over within six minutes for Jones who was beaten 16-12 after a strong performance from Alizadeh.

The Team GB coaching team in the stands were understandably devastated at the shock loss.

Although Jones was visibly tearful during her post-match interview as she talked through her performance, she remained gracious in her defeat.

“I’m absolutely gutted. It’s not how I planned the day to go and just really frustrated with myself, I wasn’t the best today so I just have to take it on the chin and congratulate the other girl,” she said.

Jones (blue) and Alizadeh Zenoorin (red) compete in the taekwondo women's -57kg elimination round AFP via Getty Images

She also commented on how Covid restrictions at the this year’s delayed Olympics affected her performance, especially as her family couldn’t be there in person to watch.

“I just felt I put too much pressure on myself going into it and I really did feel it more than I expected,” the 28-year-old said.

“Not having my family there to push me out of that fear zone really did affect me, and I’m gutted I couldn’t do more on the day.

“Normally if I feel the pressure I’ll go out and hear them screaming and see their little faces, and it’ll push me into that attack mode, and that’s what was missing today. I just stayed in the scared mode.”

Sports fans responded to the shock defeat by paying tribute to Jones on Twitter:

In the end, Alizadeh missed out on winning the Refugee Olympic Team’s first-ever medal after she was beaten by Turkey’s Hatice Kübra in the bronze medal match.

Though it wasn’t all bad news for Team GB in taekwondo, as Chelsie Giles won a bronze medal n the 52kg women’s judo class.