How Olympics medal hopeful Lauren Williams was inspired by Jade Jones as she heads into final
Lauren Williams surged into the Olympic taekwondo final with a thrilling 24-18 win over Rio bronze medallist Ruth Gbagbi in Tokyo.
The Blackwood 22-year-old, whose season has been hit by injury, established an early 10-0 lead that she never surrendered to book a gold medal showdown in the -67kg category with top seed Matea Jelic of Croatia.
It capped a fine series of performances from Williams, coming just 24 hours after fellow Team GB star Jade Jones missed her chance to claim an unprecedented third straight title.
Lauren Williams will go for gold later on Monday, at around 13:30pm.
Who is Lauren Williams?
"I began street dancing when I was ten but got bored, it wasn’t aggressive enough!", Lauren Williams told GB Taekwando.
Fast-forward 12 years and that 10-year-old is now a woman about to compete in an Olympic final in the martial art Taekwando.
Born in 1999, Lauren Williams was a kick-boxer before she made the switch to Taekwondo after having watched Jade Jones become Olympic Champion at London 2012 on her TV.
After only spending a few months as a senior, Lauren struck gold at the European Championships in Montreux in 2016. She was also selected as a reserve for the Olympic Games in Rio, before retaining her title as Junior World Champion later that year.
Lauren has gone on to defend her European crown and finished off 2018 with a gold at the Grand Slam in Wuxi, China.
She has also achieved gold at the European Games and added silver to her collection from the 2021 European Championships.
She is now guaranteed at least a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo olympics ahead of her final in the -67kg category on Monday 26th July.
At these delayed Tokyo games, Williams stopped her first opponent Malia Paseka of Tonga in the opening round, then withstood a ferocious last-round fightback to beat experienced Egyptian Hedaya Wahba 13-12.
Williams, a two-time European champion who is making her Olympic debut, was up against it in her semi-final against her experienced opponent from the Ivory Coast.
But a blistered start surely settled her nerves and a thoroughly composed performance ensured she would guarantee Great Britain's second Taekwondo medal.
Williams defeated her Olympic final opponent - Croatia's Matea Jelic - on day one of the WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix 2018 at the Regional Arena, Manchester.
They will take each other on again in Tokyo at lunchtime on Monday.
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