London 2012 Olympics: Muhammad battles to bronze after seizing his second chance

Britain’s taekwondo fighter Lutalo Muhammad battled to an Olympic bronze medal with victory over Arman Yeremyan of Armenia in the under-80kgs at ExCeL.

Muhammad, 21, was a controversial selection for the Olympic squad ahead of world No 1 Aaron Cook, but could only make the last eight before he was beaten by Nicolas Garcia Hemme. However, as the Spaniard went on to reach the final, the Briton was handed a second chance through the repechage where he beat Iran’s Yousef Karami, winning 11-7 against the 2004 Athens bronze medallist.

That set up a clash with beaten semi-finalist Yeremyan, and the Team GB fighter, raised just a few miles away in Walthamstow, finally did himself justice with an all action display to win 9-3.

Muhammad, European champion earlier this summer at the under-87kg middleweight, came out to a raucous reception, the hosts having roared Wales teenager Jade Jones on to gold in the under-57kgs on Thursday.

The 21-year-old landed an early head shot inside the first 30 seconds, which was upheld on video appeal and he led 4-1 at the buzzer. The Briton slowed things down in round two, as he moved 5-2 ahead – and then landed another big axe kick as Yeremyan backed out of the mat to open up an eight-point lead.

Muhammad controlled the final two minutes as he became Britain’s first male Olympic taekwondo medallist.

Earlier, Sarah Stevenson – bronze medallist in Beijing and who won the world title last year before suffering a serious knee injury – lost in the first round to Paige McPherson. The American went on to win bronze through the repechage. Muhammad said: “We don’t normally get a second chance, and there was no way I was going to lose this opportunity. My coaches told me ‘this bronze is now your gold medal, so you have to treat it as a final and go for it.’ That got me in the right state mentally.

“Bronze is not the colour I wanted, but it was hard earned, so I am very grateful to have this reward and hopefully next time, I can go two further to get that Olympic gold medal.”

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Jones was revelling yesterday in her dream of becoming Britain’s first Olympic taekwondo champion after defeating China’s Hou Yuzhuo on Thursday.

She said: “I’m overwhelmed by it. I only had an hour’s sleep. My dream was always to come here and get gold and I’d have been disappointed with anything less but I knew how hard it was going to be to win. So to actually have the gold medal around my neck is amazing. It is a dream come true.”