DORCHESTER-BORN Aaron Cook was absolutely stunned by Chinese Taipei competitor Wei-Ting Liu in the first round of the men’s -80kg taekwondo competition, at the Olympic Games in Rio.

The county town fighter took a 1-0 lead on points early on against Liu but that was as good as it got for the world number two, as he was convincingly beaten by the 15th seed in the round of 16.

Cook could never recover after going behind in the contest and, in pushing forward on the attack, left himself open to the counter and was eventually beaten 14-2, as the 12-point margin saw 21-year-old Liu progress to the quarter-finals.

That meant that former Team GB athlete Cook, who switched nations to Moldova in a bid to get back on the Olympic mat after a storm of controversy, could not claim the gold medal he was much fancied for at the competition.

He still had a chance of competing for bronze in Brazil in the repechage of the event, but destiny was out of his hands.

Had Liu made the final, the Dorchester athlete would have come back to compete for third spot.

But the Chinese Tapei fighter was defeated in his very next round 1-0 by Tunisia’s Oussama Oueslati, meaning Cook would not get the chance to compete again and his hopes were dashed after just one bout.