Paris 2024: Jack Woolley comes up short in Taekwondo opener

Jack Woolley lost his opening fight at Paris 2024 to Azerbaijan's Gashin Magomedov as the men’s taekwondo 58kg category got underway at the Grand Palais on Wednesday.

Three years ago in his Olympics debut at Tokyo 2020, Woolley lost at the same last-16 stage against Argentina’s Lucas Guzman having led late in the final round and had spoken about how "devastated" he was by the outcome having also missed the repechage round.

This time against Magomedov, the Dubliner fell 4-0 behind in the first round, three points for a head kick from his opponent before Woolley nicked a point back.

But Magomedov was awarded a further three points after a video request was accepted and reviewed in his favour.

Woolley was gutsy in the remainder of the round but lost it 7-4, meaning he would have to win the second to avoid defeat.

He started the second round well with a head kick landing early to put him 3-0 up.

However, Magomedov turned it around to lead a high-scoring second round 11-9.

Woolley then requested a review of his own which was rejected and he lost the second round 12-6 as his opponent prevailed to book a quarter-final against Adrián Vicente Yunta.

To reach this evening's repechage for a path to a potential bronze medal match, Woolley would require Magomedov to reach the gold medal final.