Jade Jones crashes out of World Taekwondo Championships after scoring glitch
Monday 18 May 2015 14:06, UK
Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones missed out on automatic qualification for Rio 2016 after she suffered a controversial exit from the quarter-finals of the WTF World Championships in Russia.
Jones was undefeated in her previous six tournaments and would have secured her place in next summer’s Olymipics had she won gold in Chelyabinsk.
The 22-year-old dropped only two points in reaching the last eight of the -57 class, but came unstuck against gifted Iranian Kimia Azizadeh Zenoorin despite taking a 4-1 lead.
Zenoorin quickly levelled at 4-4 before the pair traded blows until the final 30 seconds. Jones appealed for a head shot which the referees rejected to leave the scores tied at 9-9 and seconds later she struck with a reverse to the chest just as Zenoorin countered.
The electronic scoring system froze and when it quickly came back online, only the Iranian's point had registered. Without a video appeal, distraught Jones had no time to respond and went out 10-9.
"It was a really tight match but I thought I had it when I scored the spinning back kick," Jones said.
"The scoring system crashed and when it returned, I didn't have the points. I couldn't understand why. I still can't."
Jones, who was unbeaten in her previous six tournaments, would have qualified automatically for the 2016 Olympics in Rio if she had won gold in Russia.
To complete an unhappy penultimate final day of the championships for the British contingent, Mancunian Jordan Gayle lost his opening match 18-16 to Lorenz Chavez of the Philippines.
