GB’s Cunningham to fight for taekwondo gold

Britain’s Caden Cunningham will bid for Olympic taekwondo gold later on Saturday – and Rebecca McGowan will fight again for a chance at bronze.

Cunningham, competing at his first Olympics, stunned Rio 2016 champion Cheick Sallah Cisse in the men’s +80kg semi-finals.

The pair were tied at 1-1 going into the final round of the best-of-three match – and, as the clock ticked down, the score in the decider was level at 5-5.

But Cunningham, 21, was judged to have had more shots and was declared the winner.

Cunningham will face Iran’s Arian Salimi in the final at 20:18 BST, knowing he is guaranteed at least a silver medal in Paris.

Asked how he would prepare for the final, Cunningham said: “Chill, eat a banana, drink, smile and warm up.

“I plan to come out victorious, so happy days.”

Bianca Cook, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist for GB, praised Cunningham’s maturity during the fight.

“That match was going to be so tight, down the wire, but Caden kept his cool,” she said on BBC TV.

“They’re both such strong characters. They knew what they needed to do to get the edge over each other and Caden was fantastic.”

McGowan was outclassed 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the women’s +67kg event by Svetlana Osipova of Uzbekistan.

However, Osipova went on to reach the final, meaning McGowan will contest the repechage – a fight which decides who will advance to the bronze medal matches.

McGowan, from Dumbarton, will now need to recompose herself and beat Astan Bathily of Ivory Coast to be in with a shot at a medal.

Britain have won a taekwondo medal at every Games since Athens in 2004, but they initially struggled in Paris.

Gold medal favourite Bradly Sinden had to withdraw injured before his men’s -68kg bronze medal match, having taken silver in Tokyo three years ago.

That came after two-time gold medallist Jade Jones suffered an early defeat – just as she did in Tokyo – in the women’s -57kg.