"Sometimes your body has other plans:" Doncaster's Bradly Sinden on Olympic heartbreak

The 25-year-old from Stainforth had been bidding to win gold for Team GB in the men’s -68kg category – but suffered semi-final defeat to to Jordan’s Zaid Kareen.

He was set to contest the bronze medal match but pulled out of the bout due to an injury suffered in an early fight Croatia’s Marko Golubic.

Sinden said he felt “sadness, frustration and anger” at having to pull out and admitted to having “a little cry” after his quest for a medal came to a heartbreaking end.

He said: “In my second fight againt Croatia, I don’t know exactly what I did, but I did a kick and I felt a twinge in my left knee.

"I carried on but I felt it go – I know the feeling because I’ve done the right one before.

"So it’s just frustrating. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the gameplan I wanted to do in the semi-finals but I thought I’ll give it a good go.

"It was hard, it could have gone my way but it was a bit too much in the end.”

"Obviously we all mind losing, but I thought if I could do my best with the injury and then lose. But with the injury I don’t think I had it in me to go on and perform and bring home the medal so I took a tough decision.

"I obviously didn’t want to end Paris 2024 like this but sometimes your body has different plans for you.”

“I’ve had some good prep coming into this competition. It’s just unfortunate it had to happen – such is life.

"It was gold or nothing for me here.

"If it wasn’t for injury, I would have come back for the bronze. It’s sadness, frustration, anger – I had myself a little cry. There’s a lot of emotions at a place like this – I’ve got to remind myself I am privileged.”

In an announcement on social media from Team GB, they said: "Due to an injury sustained in his quarter-final earlier today, Bradly Sinden is sadly unable to compete for bronze in the men’s -68kg taekwondo competition this evening."

Sinden, who won silver in Tokyo, was due to fight China's Yushuai Liang.

He slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Kareem – 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.

And Sinden was seen limping after the contest and visibly in pain.

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.