Olympic champion Jade Jones won gold for Britain in the womens -57kg taekwondo on Wednesday (17 June) to make it two British victories in the sport at the inaugural European Games.

After teammate Charlie Maddock had claimed gold in the -49kg event on 16 June, Jones defeated Croatias Ana Zaninovic 12-9 in the final to claim Britains third gold and fifth medal in total.

Jones, 22, led 5-0 after a dominant opening period, 8-6 after the second and held her nerve to triumph by three points after a tense final two minutes.

Jones became the first British athlete to win Olympic gold in taekwondo in 2012 and was also the winner of the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.

I was really upset after the World Championships and you know I did really well just to get straight back into training and crack on, so to win gold – coming with a little bit of a confidence loss – has really helped me, she told reporters. Yeah, you know I was distraught, I wanted to win, so yeah, this has really helped me a little bit.

Jones said Maddocks success had provided her with extra motivation to emulate her teammate and top the podium in the Azeri capital.

Charlie did amazing, Jones added. Shes only been doing taekwondo a year. It gives me confidence in our programme. Ive been doing the same training as her, were all a team and doing the same thing so it gives you confidence.

En route to the gold medal, the second seed was nearly beaten by Hungarys Edina Kotsis in the quarter-final, trailing 2-1 late on before landing a kick to the face of her opponent with just 23 seconds of the final period remaining and progressing 5-2.

In her semi-final, Jones was 7-1 up and cruising against Swedens Nikita Glasnovic, but had to withstand a late fightback, eventually prevailing 7-6.

She beat Cypriot Despina Pilavaki 9-1 in the opening round at the Crystal Hall.