LONDON -- Teenage taekwondo fighter Jade Jones won Britain's 25th gold medal of London 2012 and first in the sport with a convincing victory over Chinese taekwondoka and twice world champion Hou Yuzhuo in the final on Thursday.
Jones, 19, won the bout 6-4 in front of a capacity crowd at the ExCeL.
Jones' success came after fellow British fighter Martin Stamper missed out on bronze in the men's 68kg category.
"I've dreamed about this gold medal for ages. It's just amazing, actually it's just unbelievable to be the first British winning taekwondoka. I still can't believe it, I need some some time to realize it," said Jones after the match.
"The crowd made that big difference today because every time that I came out (from the calling room), as soon as I heard the crowd I was overwhelmed with their support," she added.
Jones, from Flint, North Wales, was only eight when she first took up the tough fighting sport and she quickly progressed under the guidance of her grandfather.
Jones reached the final by defeating the world number one, Tseng Li Cheng of Chinese Taipei, in a semifinal upset.
The teenager, a world silver medalist in 2011, had opened her Olympic debut with an impressive 15-1 victory over Serbian Dragana Gladovi. She then beat Japan's Mayu Hamada 13-3 in the last eight.
