Williams just eight seconds from the title
LAUREN WILLIAMS, the girl who lived in a caravan for 18 months to chase her dream, was eight seconds from glory.
In a gold-medal contest of unrelenting tension, and with a gripped nation clustered around their TVs at lunchtime, it ended in heartbreaking, last-gasp defeat – just as it did for taekwondo team-mate Bradly Sinden 24 hours earlier.
At 22-18 up, and with the hourglass down to the last grains of sand, it looked as if the 22-year-old from Blackwood in SouthWales was going to add a fourth gold medal to Team GB’s Magic Monday.
But in taekwondo, probably more than any other Olympic sport, the die is never cast until the stopwatch says the last second has elapsed.
And after her 25-22 loss to Croatia’s Matea Jelic in the -67kg final, Williams was honest enough to admit: “It’s not enough – I had her, 10 seconds, I just let it go... I made a mistake and let it go, it’s on me.”
Not enough? You must be joking, Lauren. For the second day running, Britain fell in love with taekwondo and its unheralded stars who came so close to bringing home gold.
Williams was as humble in defeat as she was gracious on her passage to the final. She said: “I went out there to win and tried my best but it didn’t happen. I am very happy with how I performed.An Olympic silver medal is not bad, is it?
“I’ve had injuries and I came out here late but as soon as I got here I hit the ground running and I was pretty confident.
“It has been absolutely crazy, insane, my first Olympics.”
When the anguish has subsided, we may not be able to forget those eight seconds between triumph and disappointment – but nor should we forget the sacrifices Williams’ family made.
When she was too young to join the national academy and live in British Taekwondo accommodation, Williams’ mother took a sabbatical from her job and lived with her
daughter in a caravan for 18 months in Manchester.
That’s not ‘enough’ – that’s inspirational.