The 17-year-old from North Wales, who was second at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships earlier this year, became Youth Olympic champion with the very last kick of the final against the tough Thanh Thao Nguyen of Vietnam.

Jones took an early 3-1 lead in a nervy opening round in the gold medal match before Nguyen levelled it at 3-3 in the second.

The third round saw fast and furious action from both of the girls and as the buzzer sounded, it was 6-6 which meant sudden death.

But Jnes kept her composure to land a perfect kick to the face of Nguyen to win Britain's first gold medal at this new event.

Following the victory, Jones told insidethegames: "It’s just amazing, it’s always nerve-wracking when it gets that close and I just can’t believe it.

"The whole Olympic set-up is amazing and now my sights are set on London 2012.

"[London 2012] is definitely in the back of my mind all the time.

"I’ve had the experience here now so I know what it’s going to be like so I just need to keep on winning and the rest will take care of itself.

"I’m going to see my family now.

"I haven’t seen them for a month so I can’t wait to spend some time with them but I’m going to watch all of my teammates and cheer them on like they cheered me on."

In a fantastic day for the British star, Jones defeated Ruth Gbagbi from the Ivory Coast 7-3 in the preliminary stages of the competition and then followed it up with an impressive 7-4 win over Mexico’s Monica Chavez to advance to the semi-final.

Jones, who took up the sport up as an eight-year-old in order to learn to defend herself, then dominated all three rounds against Jennifer Argren of Sweden to secure a 4-0 win before going on to defeat Nguyen.

Andy Hunt, chief executive of the British Olympic Association (BOA), said: "Jade was fantastic and it’s a great start for Great Britain to get off to.

"We’ve got still got some fabulous talent to come so we’re in good stead.

"I’m sure we could see one or two of these athletes come through and compete at London 2012.

"More importantly, we’re now seeing the strength of some of our young athletes coming through and moving in to the senior squads and that’s great news for Great Britain."

Jones’ victory capped a fantastic day for Britain in which badminton player Sarah Milne went through to the semi-final of the girl’s singles at the Singapore Indoor Arena, tennis star Oliver Golding advanced to the quarter-final in the boy’s singles at the Kallang Tennis Centre and both Britain’s male and female junior rowing pairs qualifying for tomorrows final at Marina Reservoir.

The only sour note for the team was Victoria Ohuruogu, the younger sister of women’s 400 metre Olympic Champion Christine, missing out in the women’s 400 m A-final after she qualified in tenth place in her heat with a time of 55.56sec.

Ohuruogu will now compete in the women’s 400m B-final on Saturday (August 21).

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