Jade Jones takes silver at World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Rome

Flintshire’s Jade Jones won -57kg silver at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Rome on Friday.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist took on China’s Zongshi Luo who was returning to competitive Taekwondo for the first time since winning bronze at the World Taekwondo Grand Slam in Wuxi in 2019.

In the first round, 29-year-old Jones came out the more aggressive, but it was Luo who registered the first points with a kick to the body protector.

Consecutive body kicks, extended Luo’s lead before Jones pegged her back with a spinning kick to the body.

However, Luo took advantage of her height and leg advantage to land a number of head kicks and win the first round.

Luo took an early 2-0 lead in the second round.

A head kick from Jones momentarily gave her the lead before Luo pulled it back and the score was tied at 5-5.

The score remained very close until the closing moments when Jones searching for the winning kick was forced into a number of Gam-jeons.

Luo proved too strong and won the round 12-5 to win the fight and take gold as Jones took silver.

In the earlier semi-finals, USA’s Tokyo 2020 champion Anastasija Zolotic had faced Jones.

Zolotic won the first round after Jones had taken an early lead, only for Jones to tie up the match by winning a hard fought-second round before winning the third to take the fight.