Two Merseyside athletes scooped bronze medals on the penultimate day of the Olympics.
Bianca Walkden finished third in the women’s taekwondo after narrowly missing out on potential gold in a semi-final defeat to China’s Shuyin Zheng.
The reigning World and European champion, from West Derby, admitted that she had initially struggled to pick herself up from the golden-point defeat.
She said: “I did come here for gold and I didn’t even want to go out there and fight for bronze. But my coach told me I still had to go for it because it’s still an Olympic medal.
“I just went back out and tried to forget about what had happened. I thought this is it, start from scratch, and this is six minutes of my life to get an Olympic medal.
“I’m world champion and European champion and I did really want to get that gold. But now I will focus on doing even better in Tokyo – it’s only four years away.”
Further success followed for another of the region’s representatives as Anyika Onuora, 31, won bronze as part of Team GB’s 4x400m relay.
The pair’s accomplishments in Rio came 24 hours after Wirral’s Sam Quek scooped a gold medal as part of Team GB’s womens hockey side.