Olympics day two: Bradly Sinden misses out on GB's first gold after Jade Jones heartbreak

Team GB’s wait for a first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics goes on after Bradly Sinden lost to Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashitov in the men’s -68kg taekwondo final, though he still picked up silver. Sinden had been hoping to become the first ever British male Olympic taekwondo champion but fell to a narrow defeat. Sinden’s silver in Tokyo however adds to Chelsea Giles’ judo bronze to take Britain’s medal total to two so far.

Sinden fell to a 34-29 loss to the brilliant Rashitov having seen off -58kg Rio champion Zhao Shuai of China in the semi-finals after an eight-point comeback.

The Doncaster-born 22-year-old, the first British male world taekwondo champion when he reigned supreme in 2019, was seeking a similar fightback in the third round of the final.

But he fell just short and was denied the chance to become the first British man ever to take the top prize in taekwondo at the Games.

Sinden said to the BBC: “Disappointment. It was my gold medal to give away. He’s a good fighter, took out some good players throughout the day but I made mistakes.

“There was two moments where I had him and I made mistakes and let him back in. You’ve got to commemorate him for what he did. Well done to him. You’ll see me again in Paris.

“It was there for me to take but I’ll take it away and come back stronger.”

There was also heartbreak for defending taekwondo champion Jade Jones as she was denied the dream of a historic third gold medal, losing to refugee Kimia Alizadeh in her first match.

Jones, a -57kg gold medallist in London and Rio, was looking to go down in history as the first British female to win golds at three consecutive Olympics.

But she lost 16-12 in the round of 16 and fell to her knees after her loss, as room-mate and heavyweight taekwondoin Bianca Walkden watching from the sidelines broke into tears.

“I just felt like I put too much pressure on myself going into it and I really did feel it, more than I expected on the day,” Jones said.

“And not having my family there to kind of push me out of that fear zone really did affect me and I’m just gutted that I couldn’t do more.

“For me, I do love a crowd, and I do love my family being there so it was a struggle and I did miss them being there.”

Coventry judoka Giles however claimed Great Britain’s first medal of the Olympics earlier on Sunday by winning bronze after defeating Switzerland’s Fabienne Kocher in the women’s -52kg repechage.

The 24-year-old overcame Macedonia’s Arbresha Rexhepi and Morocco’s Soumiya Iraoui to reach the quarter-final, where she was beaten by Japan’s Uta Abe.

However, she was presented with another route to a podium place and duly took it, downing Belgium’s Charline van Snick and then Kocher in their bronze medal match, both with Ippon finishes.

Giles’ bronze means Great Britain have won a judo medal at three successive Olympic Games for the first time since Barcelona 1992.

“It feels very special to do it in Japan,” she said. “It’s an amazing arena, the atmosphere was amazing and to do it where judo started makes it extra special.

“I felt really good in the warm-up and I was taking each fight as it came. It went really well, I believed that I could do it and my coach has always believed I can do it and it showed in my performances.

“I never underestimate any of my fights, I think that’s when mistakes are made, so I go into the fight knowing what they do and knowing what I’m capable of doing.

“With my best performance I know I can beat some of the top players and my performances showed that.”

That came after Yorkshire swimmer Max Litchfield went close to bronze as he agonisingly finished fourth in the men’s 400 metres individual medley final.

Great Britain also finished only fifth in heat two of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, missing out on the final after the Russian Olympic Committee team finished just ahead of them.

Overnight, world record holder and defending champion Adam Peaty continued his quest for gold as he powered through to the 100m breaststroke final with the fastest time.

The 26-year-old Briton won his morning semi-final comfortably in 57.63 seconds, slower than the 57.56 in Saturday’s evening heats but more than a second quicker than China’s Yan Zibei.

Andy Murray’s bid for a third straight Olympic singles gold medal was meanwhile ended before it began as he withdrew ahead of his first match with a minor thigh strain.

The Scot had been due to take on ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Sunday but was replaced on the order of play by Australian Max Purcell, who stunned the Canadian 6-4, 7-6.

The three-time Grand Slam champion said: “I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events, so I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles and focus on playing doubles with Joe [Salisbury].”

Elsewhere in tennis, Japan’s Naomi Osaka won but Australian world No 1 Ashleigh Barty – who won Wimbledon earlier this month – crashed out in the first round.

Team GB’s women’s hockey team, who were victorious at Rio 2016, lost their first match 2-1 to Germany.