Great Britain's Charlie Maddock has described her victory over Tijana Bogdanovic in this evening's women's -49kg final at the European Games as the highlight of her career so far.
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The 19-year-old made history by becoming the first person to pick up a taekwondo gold at the inaugural Games, overcoming her Serbian opponent courtesy of a golden point after the two could not be separated over three thrilling rounds.
In the process, she also became the first British female to win a gold medal at a European Games, and she believes that it was a hard-earned triumph.
"I feel like I put everything that I could into it and obviously I've come out on top," she told Sports Mole after the fight.
"I just kept fighting and winning. You just focus on each match and that's all you can do."
Maddock was the first of Team GB's seven-strong taekwondo squad to compete in Baku and, while Max Cater was unable to progress further than the quarter-finals, Maddock believes that her success can inspire the rest of the team.
When asked whether it was important to set the tone for her teammates, she said: "Yeah, hopefully we'll perform well and win more medals."
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However, the former kickboxing junior world champion is adamant that there is still more to come from her, having hit the zenith of her time in taekwondo thus far.
Asked if this was the highlight of her career, she simply said: "So far, yes."
Along with the gold medal come 40 vital ranking points for the Rio Olympics next year, giving a major boost to her chances of qualifying for next summer's Games.
With the gold and the ranking points to choose from, however, Maddock could not decide which were the most valuable to her at this stage of her career.
"A bit of both really. The ranking points are important to get where I want to get to, but this at the moment obviously isn't bad. So now gold," she added.
Martin Stamper and Olympic champion Jade Jones will look to add to Team GB's success tomorrow when they compete in the men's -68kg and women's -57kg events respectively.
Barney Corkhill
