Jack Woolley has to play a waiting game now to see if he'll get another chance at the greatest venue he's ever competed in. A quarter-final defeat at the Grand Palais in Paris for Ireland's two-time - and only taekwondo - Olympian is the same result as in Tokyo. But while that last-second defeat three years ago resulted in an outpouring of raw emotion from the Tallaght man, he was more reflective this afternoon as the waiting game started.
READ MORE: 'This one was for me' — Kellie Harrington on winning double Olympic gold READ MORE: Kellie Harrington fears for Irish boxing if the sport is left out of LA Olympics There was nothing last second about this defeat to Azerbaijan's Gashim Magomedov as Woolley lost both rounds. But, if Magomedov gets to the gold medal fight, the Irishman will get the chance to go the tricky repechage route to bronze. “I don’t think anybody comes to the Olympics to not get a medal," said Woolley.
"I’m obviously very devastated but if you’d told me six months ago that I’d be here in the first place, I’d laugh at you. "To go out against an opponent who I know is really tough because we’ve fought each other – that’s the third time now, and it was 1-1 going into that - unfortunately today it didn’t go according to plan. "The fact is that he's a good opponent is good for me because if he makes it to the final I can get back in and go for a bronze medal but that’s out of my hands now.
I don’t want to dwell on that too much. I’ll .