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Historic bronze for GB's Muhammad
Lutalo Muhammad wins Olympics taekwondo bronze in -80kg class
Lutalo Muhammad became the first British man to win an Olympic taekwondo medal, beating Armenia's Arman Yeremyan 9-3 to take bronze.
The 21-year-old lost in the -80kg quarter-finals to Nicolas Garcia Hemme, but was handed a repechage place once the Spaniard made the final.
Muhammad was a controversial choice for Team GB, picked ahead of world number one Aaron Cook.
Muhammad loses in quarter final
But his third-place finish will go some way to silencing the critics.
Muhammad received hate mail following his Olympic nomination and admitted some of the messages were "hurtful".
However, he responded to the disappointment of his loss earlier in the day to beat Iran's Yousef Karami 11-7 in the first round of the repechage before securing a medal with victory over Yeremyan.
"It's unfortunate that it wasn't gold, but I'm grateful that I managed to get a medal," Muhammad told BBC Sport. "The crowd was tremendous. I'm a London boy so it makes it that much sweeter."
Muhammad insisted he had not felt additional pressure at being selected over Cook, saying he had taken a "nothing-to-lose" approach.
"I knew I had to try to win a bronze medal for Team GB and it's very sweet now I have done it," he said
It was the second medal in as many nights for Britain's taekwondo fighters following a surprise gold for teenager Jade Jones on Thursday.
Final Results
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Medal moment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Molfetta |
ITA
|
|
| 2 | Obame |
GAB
|
|
| 3 | Despaigne |
CUB
|
|
| 3 | Liu |
CHN
|
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Comment number 215.
Maw7412th August 2012 - 21:00
So no I guess you can't then.
Link to this (Comment number 215)
Comment number 214.
GeneralSahib12th August 2012 - 17:44
Folks here should pay attention to what happens in other more established British sports. Pietersen was dropped in the cricket for thinking himself bigger than his teammates and disrespecting the management. That is actually the right message to send out to your team, the nation and to youngsters. And Aaron Cook was dropped for the same basic reason. Right decision.
Link to this (Comment number 214)
Comment number 213.
KevinK12th August 2012 - 14:46
@210 Thats the thing why do you think he is no'1 ranked cause his name is on top of some table which is based on a scoring system which can be manipulated. If it containted every single athelite in the worlds top 10 constantly each tournament then people will actually give him more credit but as people have pointed out hes just competed to accumulate points to better his ranking and nothing else.
Link to this (Comment number 213)
Comment number 212.
L8br8er12th August 2012 - 9:34
I never plucked this out of fresh air. The only possible reason to why the the GB team have not said it in public is that TKD is about respect and basically shutting your mouth and getting on with it. GB TKD made a decision for valid reasons and wanted to get on with it, there is no point in professionals with a lot to concentrate on debating with the loud mouth public who understands very little.
Link to this (Comment number 212)
Comment number 211.
L8br8er12th August 2012 - 9:16
@208 Thanks. @209 there is no i in team, Cook never would have made the 2008 games on his own the GB team got him there. @210 when a TKD athlete goes to competitions where no single high ranking fighter enters it simply means he tried a swifty to collect points to fool people who do not know TKD. I do believe it was places like the Costa Rica and Belgium Open Cook went to scoop up easy points.
Link to this (Comment number 211)
Comments 5 of 215