Heartbreak as Doncaster's Bradly Sinden loses in semi-finals at Paris 2024

The Stainforth fighter slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Jordan’s Zaid Kareem in the -68g contest – meaning he missed out on his second consecutive Olympic final.

In a cagey contest, the pair were locked at one game all before Kareem clinched a decisive 9-1 victory in the final bout.

Sinden took the first fight 2-1 before Kareem took the second 4-2.

Both fighters were decidedly edgy in the final bout, but some brave fighting from the Jordanian saw him end Bradly’s dreams of gold.

The 25-year-old Doncaster man, who took silver at Tokyo, will now fight for the brozne medal later today.

He had earlier booked his place in the last four after a tough 2-1 victory over Croatia’s Marko Golubic and an earlier 2-0 victory over Kevin Kassman of Papua New Guinea. triumphing 2-0, winning his rounds 12-0 and 15-3, finishing the contest in a matter of seconds.

The Stainforth fighter was one of Team GB’s top medal hopes – after going agonisingly close on his debut at the Tokyo 2020 games where he claimed silver.

Who is Bradly Sinden?

Bradly became the second male taekwondo competitior in Team GB history to win an Olympic medal after securing silver on his Games debut at Tokyo 2020.

The 25-year-old from Stainforth fell to a 34-29 defeat against Uzbekistan's Ulugbek Rashitov in the men’s -68kg final as he settled for silver, following in the footsteps of two-time medallist Lutalo Muhammad.

He took up taekwondo as soon as he was old enough, having been introduced to the sport by his sister - and he’s not looked back since.

In 2019, after securing the -68kg world title, Sinden became the first British male to ever become taekwondo world champion.

At the 2023 European Games in Poland, Sinden picked up a second silver medal for Team GB in the men's -68kg.

He was named as one of seven British and Irish athletes to watch out for at this year’s Games by the Press Association.

The news agency said: “The Doncaster taekwondo star was disappointed with a silver medal in the men’s -68kg category in Tokyo and vowed to learn from his mistakes.

"He will return to Olympic competition with a second world title in the bag and as a strong favourite to finally make good on his lifelong ambition and turn that agonising silver into gold in the French capital.”

Three years ago in Tokyo, the then-21-year-old was eight seconds away from Olympic gold when his final opponent Rashitov caught him unawares with a kick to the head and the body to snatch the title and leave Sinden with a disappointing silver.

He will be following in the footsteps of Doncaster Olympian Sarah Stevenson, who became Team GB’s first Olympic medallist in the sport, winning bronze at Beijing in 2008.

She was chosen to read the athletes’ oath at the opening of the 2012 games in London, retiring in 2013.

What is taekwondo?

It is a martial art that combines combat and self-defence with sport and exercise, the modern form of the sport was not agreed upon until 1955 - yet its history has roots in various Korean martial art forms dating back more than 2,000 years.

The sport has been part the Olympic programme since Sydney 2000, although was a display event during the two previous Games.

In 2012, Jade Jones became the country's first Olympic champion, and did so aged just 19, and she repeated that golden success at Rio 2016 in defending her title.

Lutalo Muhammad won bronze at London 2012 and then silver at Rio 2016 while Bianca Walkden took bronze in Brazil as three of Team GB's four athletes won medals at the Games.

When is it on?

The men’s -68kg contest starts on August 8 with the qualification round

2.30pm: Quarter finals

4.11pm: Semi finals

7.30pm: Repecharges

8.19pm: Bronze medal contests

9.19pm: Gold medal contests

How do I watch?

The BBC is showing selected coverage from the Paris 2024 games on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

Not all events are being covered live, however.

Discovery Plus is screening every event in every sport from Paris 2024, live.