Not bad for a teenager! Taekwondo fighter Jade Jones wins Team GB's 25th gold medal with thrilling victory in Olympic final

• Welsh athlete, 19, defeats Chinese opponent Hou Yuzhuo 6-4 at the ExCeL
• Victory completes glorious hat-trick for Great Britain after Nicola Adams and Charlotte Dujardin won gold medals in boxing and dressage
• Jones was competing at the Olympics for the first time

Teenage taekwondo fighter Jade Jones won Great Britain's 25th gold medal of London 2012 tonight with a stunning victory over Chinese competitor Hou Yuzhuo in the Olympic final.

Jones, 19, won the bout 6-4 in front of a capacity crowd at the ExCeL.

She became Great Britain's first ever Olympic taekwondo champion and shared the glorious moment with her mother Jayne Ferguson and grandfather Martin Foulkes, who were in the arena to watch history be made.
Jones threw her helmet in the air and did a lap of honour carrying the Union Flag after the final bell.

On top of the world: Taekwondo fighter Jade Jones shows off her gold medal - the 25th won by Team GB at London 2012

Kiss of glory: Jade Jones is Great Britain's first Olympic taekwondo champion

Prize fighter: Jade Jones celebrates becoming Olympic champion as her opponent walks away

Her win in the under-57kg weight category completed a terrific hat-trick for British athletes, following gold medals for Leeds boxer Nicola Adams and rider Charlotte Dujardin in the dressage competition.
After the contest, Jones said: 'It feels crazy. It's amazing and the crowd's amazing.'
She called her coach Paul Green 'a legend', adding: 'Without him I wouldn't be where I am today.'
Jones added: 'Before I came out I thought, "I'm not letting her beat me here in front of the home crowd".

 

'To be the first athlete to win Olympic gold is amazing.'
After a scoreless first round, Jones took the initiative in the second and built a 2-0 lead.
She built up a 6-1 advantage midway through the third and final round and, despite being pegged back in the later stages, held on to win.
Jones's success came after fellow British fighter Martin Stamper missed out on bronze in the men's under-68kg category.

Patriot: The new Olympic champion holds a Union flag and a Welsh flag on a lap of honour after her stunning victory

Golden girl: Jones celebrates glory in the ExCel Arena after beating Hou in the final

Uplifting experience: Great Britain's Jade Jones gets a hug and has her arm raised by coach Paul Green after becoming Olympic champion

Sweet moment: Taekwondo fighter Jade Jones celebrates winning Team GB's 25th gold medal of London 2012

Stamper lost in a third-place play-off to Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpah.
Jones, from Flint, North Wales, was only eight when she first took up the tough fighting sport and she quickly progressed under the guidance of her grandfather.

She had tried football and athletics but was with Mr Foulkes one day at Flint Pavilion Leisure Centre when he spotted a poster advertising the sport.

They met Martin Williams, who became her first coach, and after a taster session the quiet and retiring eight-year-old 'absolutely loved it', soon becoming hooked on the the Korean martial art.

She soon won student of the year awards at her club followed by national competition prizes and at the age of 15 decided to switch from International Taekwondo Federation rules to the World Taekwondo Federation code of the sport that features in the Olympics.

Close contest: The final was a tight and cagey fight but Jones, in the blue body armour, landed the most blows

Fighting fit: Jones took the initiative in the second round and held on in the third to clinch victory

After leaving Flint High School at 16, Jones took up the sport full-time and her grandfather again stepped in.

He took her to regular training sessions 60 miles over the English border at the Manchester Aces club, where her dedication and talent was spotted and nurtured.

Jones reached the final by defeating the world number one, Tseng Li Cheng of Chinese Taipei, in a semi-final upset.

She finished that contest with a late rally and trademark headkick to secure her place in the gold medal match.

The teenager, a world silver medallist in 2011, had opened her Olympic debut with an impressive 15-1 victory over Serbian Dragana Gladovi.

She beat Japan's Mayu Hamada 13-3 in the last eight.

So close: British fighter Martin Stamper, wearing red, lost his bronze medal match against Afghanistan's Rohullah Niikpah

'It hurt so bad': Sprinter breaks his LEG during relay heat - and finishes anyway to help the US advance to the finals

America's safe passage into the men's 4x400 meter Olympic relay final on Thursday morning was not as painless as it had first appeared after Manteo Mitchell revealed he broke his leg half way round the track but still managed to finish.
The 25-year-old 200 and 400 meter runner ran the first leg of America's heat on a blazing hot day inside London's Olympic stadium and although he finished with a limp there was no obvious sign of the pain he was feeling.
'I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100-metre mark it felt weird. As soon as I took the first step past the 200-meter mark, I felt it break. I heard it.

US sprinter Manteo Mitchell led off the men's 4X400m relay in the heats on Thursday morning in London, seen here. But just 100 meters in he felt something funny in his leg

Two hundred meters into the race Mitchell, seen here about to hand off to Joshua Mance, says he heard something pop, felt it break and let out a 'little war cry'

'I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn't hear it,' Mitchell said.
'I knew if I finished strong we could still get it (the baton) around. I saw Josh Mance motioning me in for me to hand it off to him, which lifted me.


'I didn't want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad.'
Mitchell's decision to go through the pain barrier allowed his U.S. team mates to sprint to a joint finish with the Bahamas in identical times of 2 minutes 58.87 seconds, the fastest ever run in the first round of the relay at the Olympic Games.

After the race an x-ray revealed that Mitchell, who ran his leg in 46.1 seconds, had broken his left fibula bone

Mitchell, who ran his leg in 46.1 seconds, said that he had slipped on a stairway this week in the Olympic village but had completed workouts since, including a warm-up for Thursday's race.
After the race an x-ray revealed he had broken his left fibula bone.
The U.S. team was already without 2008 Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merritt, whose title defence lasted only moments last Saturday when he pulled up with hamstring problems.
The U.S., one of the favourites for gold, will name their final line-up on Friday.

Going for gold: Girl boxer nicknamed Babyface who no one would sponsor

• Nicola Adams, 29, beat India’s Mary Kom to earn a place in today’s final
• She punched her way to an 11-6 victory at the ExCel arena, in front of a cheering crowd which included David Cameron and boxing icon Amir Khan

Her nickname is Babyface, and from the family album snapshots of a cute little girl in pigtails, it’s not hard to see why.
But Nicola Adams grew up to fight her way to the top in one of the toughest of sports for a woman – boxing.
Last night the determined 29-year-old was on the brink of fulfilling her 17-year dream to win an Olympic gold medal.

Moment to savour: Adams (left) is declared the winner over Kom at the ExCel Arena

The original Babyface: With pigtails at the age of seven

The Leeds flyweight, who almost gave up the sport four years ago due to a lack of funding, beat India’s Mary Kom to earn a place in today’s final.

 

She punched her way to an 11-6 victory at the ExCel arena, in front of a cheering crowd which included David Cameron and boxing icon Amir Khan. 
Today she faces China’s world number one Ren Cancan, and is clearly in the mood to win. ‘I massively want that gold,’ she said.
‘Words can’t express how much. It will mean everything to me. All I want to do is make my mum and my family and friends proud.’

Packs a punch: Great Britain's Nicola Adams (right) competes against India's Mary Kom

Close call: Indian superstar Kom (right) gets to grips with British fighter Adams

It would be the culmination of Nicola’s remarkable journey from a housing estate in Leeds, smashing through glass ceilings in a sport that was previously regarded as suitable only for men.
For years her mother Dee, 52, tirelessly chased potential sponsors – but not a single person or company ever put up a penny.
Nicola discovered boxing by chance when she was 12, and her mother took her and younger brother Kurtis along to a keep fit class at a gym in Burmantofts, Leeds.

In the crowd: Prime Minister David Cameron (left) watched the fight alongside former world champion Amir Khan

The gym had a boxing ring and the children would ‘mess about and do some boxing’, Mrs Adams said. ‘I didn’t really notice what she was up to, when I looked over she would be boxing or running around.’
When she was 13, Nicola won an exhibition match against another girl.
She wasn’t able to fight again until she was 17, this time in a proper Amateur Boxing Association bout.

Meeting an icon: Nicola accepts an award from boxer Amir Kahn in 2007

At that stage, female boxing opponents were in short supply.
There was only one other girl boxer in the country and Nicola was forced to go abroad to fight.  
In 2001 she became the first female boxer to represent England; in 2007 the first to win a European boxing medal and the following year the first to win a World Championship medal.
But in 2009 her dreams  were almost shattered when she tripped over a bandage on the stairs at home and cracked a vertebra.
She spent most of the next three months in a body brace, lying on her back in bed.
Ironically, boxing had just been accepted as an Olympic sport and Nicola was not fit enough to try for the new Team GB squad.
But despite being barely able to train or punch, she did enough to be selected and has never looked back.
In Burmantofts, she is regarded as a celebrity and role model. ‘Everyone is very inspired by her,’ said Mrs Adams. ‘Me – I couldn’t be prouder.
‘To hear 10,000 people cheering for your daughter is just something else. This isn’t like when somebody wins the X Factor or Big Brother.’

Now THAT'S how to celebrate Olympic gold! 'Incredible Hulk' of discus tears off his shirt then runs 100m hurdles in incredible display of joy

• German discus star Robert Harting goes on joyful hurdling lap after win
• He claimed discus gold with throw of 68.27m
• Harting then tried to take one of the Olympic flames before going on drinking session on German cruise liner
• After alcohol-fuelled session he fell asleep on a train and had his Olympic Village accreditation stolen

We may be harvesting a formidable crop of Olympic medals - but when it comes to celebrating, man mountain Robert Harting can teach us a thing or two about style.
Unlike many of our athletes,the 6ft 7in discus champion didn't bother shedding a tear when he took gold with a mammoth throw.
Instead, he tore his shirt off Incredible Hulk style, flexed his muscles with a mighty roar and grabbed a German flag from the Olympic stadium. Then he tried his luck at another gold medal, this time in the women's hurdles. The track had already been set up for the women's 100 metre final but Harting wasn't going to let the hurdles become barriers to his victory lap.

You wouldn't like him when he's angry: Robert Harting joyfully rips his shirt off Incredible Hulk-style after claiming gold last night in the discus

Celebration time: Harting was not shy in displaying his happiness at being crowned Olympic discus champion

Unleash the beast: Harting left Olympic Stadium spectators in no doubt how he felt about his latest discus win, which he clinched with a throw of 68.27m

So despite his 20 stone bulk, he jumped nearly all of them, cheered on by a delighted crowd in the 80,000 seat stadium. Next, he raced towards the Olympic cauldron, reached in, and attempted unsuccessfully to liberate one of the flaming prongs.

Finished now Herr Harting? Er, not quite. After leaving the stadium he headed out with friends and team-mates for a night to remember. If only he could. 
His extraordinary celebration continued aboard a German cruise liner docked in London to accommodate the Teutonic team, embraced an alcohol-fuelled night on the tiles - and ended with him falling asleep on a train, being robbed, and barred entry to the Olympic village yesterday after losing his accreditation.

Ripping it up: Harting has apparently made it a victory tradition to tear up his shirt after each discus win

Beat that for Olympic gold! The first fans and friends knew of his troubles came when he Tweeted in (almost) English: 'Puuh i just got robbed while I did some work to please athletic fans! I lost all my accredition [sic] for Olympic Village! - no entrance.'
Shortly after dawn he managed to get a message to German team manager Siegfried Schonert but had to wait until 8am before arrangements were made to get him in.
First reports said he went to bed 'dead tired' - and without realising he was no longer in possession of his kit and equipment.

Don't stop me now: Harting, 27, showed impressive hurdling ability despite weighing in at 20-stone

Jumping for joy: After ripping his shirt off, Harting continued his victory lap by vaulting the hurdles which had been placed for the women's 100m final

Lap of honour: The big German vaulted all the 100m hurdles, to huge applause from the Olympic Stadium crowd

No stopping me: Harting went on from his impromptu hurdles vault to a drinking session on a German cruise liner, before falling asleep on a train and having his bag stolen

After waking up without his bag following his celebratory exploits, Harting took to Twitter to reveal the predicament he found himself in

Back home in the Fatherland, however, he was hailed as a hero. In his native Berlin, officials were preparing a homecoming victory parade and were singing his praises. Social Democrat mayor Klaus Wowereit described his victory as 'Phenomenal'.
He added: 'He is, and remains, a symbol of Berlin sport. Berlin is proud.' Meanwhile the athlete's stadium antics took off on YouTube (and possibly on CCTV somewhere along the Docklands Light Railway).
Harting, unbeaten in a straight run of 29 competitions, is known as Lord of the Ring by fans, a reference to the circle from which the discus is thrown.

Harting's throw of 68.27m - the width of a football pitch - saw him crowned Olympic champion for the first time

His winning mark for the 2012 games was a formidable 68.27 metres, the width of an Olympic football pitch.
The big German is unlikely to face any disciplinary measures for his exuberance, although officials did inspect the Olympic cauldron afterwards for possible damage. He was even allowed a lie-in yesterday.
German medal winners are normally expected to be on public parade at 9.00am on the morning following their victory but Harting was allowed to sleep in and attend the afternoon one instead.

'The Olympics has destroyed womanhood': Columnist provokes storm of criticism after attack on 'chestless, manlike' competitors

• The piece - called Womanhood is dying at the Olympics' - was written by Yuksel Aytug
• He said the Games was distorting women's bodies and that extra points should be given to female athletes based on how feminine they looked

A Turkish newspaper columnist has been heavily criticised after writing an article which said the Olympic Games is destroying the female figure.
The piece - called Womanhood is dying at the Olympics' - was written by Yuksel Aytug and was published in the daily newspaper Sabah and on the paper's website.
However, it soon spread around the world by saying the Games was distorting women's bodies and that extra points should be given to female athletes based on how feminine they looked.

Under attack: Female Olympians - such as swimmer Rebecca Adlington (left) and Jessica Ennis (right) have been criticised for having masculine bodies by Yuksel Aytug

Disgrace: Team GB's Zoe Smith, 18, has been the subject of vile internet abuse, with anonymous Twitter trolls telling her she looks like a 'lesbian' and a 'bloke'

According to Hurriyet Daily News, he said: 'Broad-shouldered, flat-chested women with small hips; [they are] totally indistinguishable from men.
'Their breasts – the symbol of womanhood, motherhood – flattened into stubs as they were seen as mere hindrances to speed.

 

'I am not even talking about female javelin throwers, shot-put athletes, weightlifters, wrestlers and boxers.'
He added that the appearance of many female Olympians was 'pathetic'.
Following the publication of the article, Mr Aytug was strongly criticised by people on Twitter and his own female colleagues.
He was accused of sexism and reducing the identity of women purely to appearance.

Feminine: Yuksel Aytug has clearly not seen much of the beach volleyball competition. Team GB's Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin are pictured

His name was trending worldwide on Twitter for a number of hours, with people outraged by his comments.
In his column, he also said the Olympic Games forced woman to look more like men so they could become successful.  
One Turkish columnist, Banu Tuna, sarcastically asked Aytuğ if he thought the term 'woman' meant just a collection of legs, hips and breasts.
She also suggested that he watch lingerie fashion shows instead of the Olympic Games.
Team GB's Zoe Smith, 18,  faced abuse about her appearance before the Games began.
She was the subject of vile internet abuse after appearing on a documentary earlier this year, with anonymous Twitter trolls telling her she looks like a 'lesbian' and a 'bloke'.
The 18-year-old Londoner smashed a British record by lifting twice her body weight during the 58kg Weightlifting event at London 2012.
And she took the opportunity to slam the online bullies that have tried to sour her Olympic campaign. 
She wrote: ‘Most of the people that do think like this seem to be chauvinistic, pig-headed blokes who feel emasculated by the fact that we are stronger than them. Simple as that.’
She added that it was particularly ‘sad’ to see abuse from girls who labelled her ‘weird’ for her muscular physique.
‘You’d think that young women around the same age as us would commend us,’ she added.

RVP price is not right for Fergie... but United boss reveals interest and vows to fight on

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Arsenal are refusing to budge on a £15million Manchester United bid for Robin van Persie as he lost out on another transfer target, teenage Brazilian Lucas Moura, to big-spending Paris St Germain.

United drew 0-0 against Barcelona in normal time, with Wayne Rooney missing from 12 yards, before losing an odd three-kick shootout. Nani and Ashley Young missed for United while Xavi and Gerard Pique scored to give the Spanish side victory.
But it was events off the field that dominated the evening as Moura moved to France for 45m euros and Ferguson admitted for the first time that United are in the hunt for Van Persie.

No laughing matter: Fergie has revealed details of his attempts to sign Van Persie

 

Asked if there was any progress with the Dutch international, Ferguson said: ‘We have made a bid but Arsenal are trying to negotiate with other clubs. We just have to persevere and hope things come our way.

‘We are trying our best but there is no progress at this moment in time. It’s difficult to say why they are operating in this way or know what their thoughts are because they are not giving anything away. We are not getting any breakthrough.’

Waiting game: Van Persaie has hooked up with his Arsenal team-mates at their trainign camp

'I can't give you any more information,' Ferguson added. 'We just have to persevere. We are trying our best and hopefully it will come our way but there's no progress at this moment in time.'
Van Persie’s other main suitors, Juventus and Manchester City, feel that United are ahead of them in the race to sign the 29-year-old.

However, it appears Arsenal are doing all they can not to sell their star player to a rival.

Meanwhile, Ferguson will be privately disappointed to have lost out on 19-year-old Moura and called on UEFA to clamp down on the mammoth summer spending of PSG.

Red alert: United lost out in a penalty shoot-out to Barcelona on Wednesday night

Fuelled by money from Qatar owners, the French club do not appear to be concerned by the Financial Fair Play rules introduced by UEFA president Michel Platini.

Ferguson said: ‘I find it amazing that a club can pay 45m euros for a 19-year-old boy. I think they have spent over ¤150m Euros in the last couple of months or so.They are trying to tell people they are here.

‘The only deterrent to that is UEFA. I am sure Michel Platini will be concerned. It doesn’t  matter which country you are from, I’m sure he will be concerned by what’s happened recently.’
On the friendly match, Ferguson added: It was a good game. It’s all about preparation at this time.’

Big cat Bolt is purring! And in 200m final you'll see that man CAN fly!

 

Usain Bolt does not run the 200 metres. He flies. On Wednesday night he sauntered. Analysis of his victory in the Olympic 100m on Sunday show that in the 9.63sec from gun to tape, Bolt was connected to the earth for no more than two seconds. It is almost inaccurate to call what he does running.

'His stride is wildernesses of freedom: the world rolls under the long thrust of his heel,' wrote Ted Hughes. The poet saw a jaguar trapped behind cage bars in a zoo and imagined its dream,  turning the world on its axis with each stride of its giant paws. When Bolt runs as freely as he did in last night’s 200m qualifier it must feel like that, too.
Each pace a revolution, lapping not just a track, but a planet, kicking off into air and  landing, whole continents gobbled up and still twirling beneath the traction of his feet.

Float on: Bolt barely touches the ground when during his sprints

If it is possible for a man to glide, to skim across the surface at the Olympic Stadium, that is what Bolt achieved. He stopped running flat out before he had left the bend, completing the race a blur of pure confidence. Bolt knows his place at these Games, and it is in front, in charge, a London street ahead of the rest.
On Thursday night he will attempt to create his masterpiece. Just before nine o’clock Bolt will set out to run a race so powerful, so extraordinary, so unprecedented that in sporting terms it will make the world spin. With each stride Bolt will be  tearing a page, a name, an Olympiad, from the history book.
No predecessor, from Walter Tewkesbury, the first gold medallist in Athens in 1896 to Shawn Crawford in the same city in 2004, got to keep that precious gold medal over 200m. After last night’s semi-final, despite recording the fifth-fastest qualifying time, Bolt is now the 6-1 on favourite to do just that.
This is Bolt’s Olympics, every bit as much as in Beijing. When the parochial thrill of the British medal haul has faded, the name that will leap from the page is his. Bolt has redefined his event, and not just through size. Plenty of people are tall, but they cannot run like Bolt.
And his is the hardest event, for the entire world is his rival. Not everybody can afford golf clubs or a sailboat, not every country has access to a velodrome or the technology required to match British cycling; but each free and able-bodied person in the world is at liberty to try to run as fast as he can. Everybody can have a crack at being Usain Bolt. And only one man is.

Centre of attention: Everyone at the Olympic Stadium (above and below) wants a memory of Bolt

Nobody has come close to pushing the outside of this particular envelope, the double 100m and 200m. On Sunday night, Bolt executed his first gold medal run to perfection, setting an Olympic record over the shorter distance. On Thursday night he will attempt a repeat.
Even without a record-breaking time, a place in sport’s pantheon will be assured by gold. The double double has eluded all for one simple reason: in 24 attempts nobody keeps holds of the 200m crown.
Even double domination of the 100m has only occurred once before, when Carl Lewis retained his 1984 gold medal in 1988, in Seoul, a race subsequently discredited by so many positive drugs tests.
Yet if what Bolt did on Sunday was improbable, his aim this evening had previously been  considered impossible. Even Lewis could not keep hold of the 200m title, coming second to countryman Joe DeLoach four years later. Tonight, Bolt is intending to go faster, farther than any man has gone before. This is athletic evolution. Given the time he ran on  Sunday night, the winner of the first Olympic 100m in 1896, Thomas Burke, would have been 18m in  his wake.
Bolt’s feats travel, ricochet like gunshots, bounce from satellites, to every part of the globe. At the Waldensia Primary School in  Trelawny, Jamaica on Sunday, the children, their parents and teachers were gathered in front of a television to watch the latest exploits of their most famous ex-pupil. At which point the power failed.
Not his, obviously: theirs. Bolt’s electricity is very much on full current here in London, but the same cannot be said of northern Jamaica, where large swathes missed the sporting highlight of the year.
So what happened? At Waldensia Primary, a small girl also triumphed.

Best foot forward: Bolt is preparing to dazzle the world with another 200m title

She produced a pink battery-operated transistor radio and her friends gathered around that instead. They heard, rather than saw, Bolt become the fastest man in Olympic history and then, in pictures that have gone around the world via Skype, they shared his joy with whooping, cheering, table-slapping abandon. And that was just the adults.
Bolt brings happiness, no doubt of that. His great rival Yohan Blake, who recorded the fastest time in the semi-finals, although he almost slowed to the point of madness in the last 20m, tries to match his showmanship, but he is a young man and always looks slightly  self-conscious in his posturing. Bolt acts as if born to it.
For a man said to be scared stiff of disqualification through false-start, a fate that befell him at the World Championships last year, he showed little sign of it at the start here, body-popping to the music before settling down in the blocks.
This is an athlete who tweeted a picture of his 3am companions having won the 100m: the Swedish women's handball team. He thinks British footballers — and he is perfectly serious in angling for a trial at  Manchester United, by the way — are encouraged to settle down too early. Don’t tell Sir Alex Ferguson.
Now the stage is set. Bolt is the marquee name of these Games, and legitimately, too. There is much to celebrate in his athletic feats, no matter that the sport lends itself to doubt and suspicion. A man wins Olympic gold with his laces undone, teasing the crowd, and people tend to ask questions.

Best foot forward: Bolt is preparing to dazzle the world with another 200m title

Stroll in the park: Bolt made light work of his semi-final, cruising home in the final stages

The fastest man of all time claims to prepare on breakfasts of chicken nuggets and parties with off duty Swedish athletes and some wonder how so? Yet, so consistent over four years, Bolt’s success makes perfect sense.
It had always been thought that if an athlete of his dimensions could achieve the explosive speed of the squat sprinters from the blocks, then his giant steps would take him past the field like no man before. We have been anticipating Bolt for some time; we just haven’t seen his like.
So what we will see at the  Olympic Stadium tonight is entirely logical. Bolt is still the slowest starter on the track, as he should be, but once in his rhythm, cannot be caught. That is even truer over 200m than 100, where he has more time to get going.
The longer race was always his favourite, his feats over the shorter distance merely a bonus. The biggest cat on the track, Bolt is the fastest man in the world almost by accident. What happens tonight is by design. You’ll believe a man can fly.