Aaron Cook of Moldavia reacts after his men's -80kg quarterfinal loss to Portugal's Julio Ferreira in the Taekwondo competition at the 2015 European Games in Baku yesterday. (AFP)

AFP/Baku

The sizeable amount of money paid by a Moldovan billionaire to persuade taekwondo world number two Aaron Cook to switch allegiance from Great Britain to Moldova failed to yield a gold medal at the European Games in Baku yesterday.
The 24-year-old’s displeasure at being controversially omitted from the British team for the 2012 Olympics, despite then being world number one, led ultimately to his switch eased further by the undisclosed amount of money offered by Moldova’s billionaire taekwondo federation president Igor Iuzefovici.
Cook, a three-time European champion, though failed to show his customary brilliance and went out in the quarter-finals on a golden point in sudden death to unheralded Portuguese Julio Ferreira.
Having fought back from 5-0 to level the bout at 7-7 in the final second of the combat Cook was distraught to then fail to clinch a place in the last four. He muttered angrily to his coach and brother Luke and then slumped down and sat on the steps leading down from the mat.
“I am absolutely devastated, I was very disappointed after the world championships (in Russia in May) losing to Great Britain on golden point (in the semi-finals),” said Cook.
“It (European Games) was very close to the world championships and I just felt a little flat today, especially in that match. I came here for the gold medal,  every competition I expect the gold medal. I put a lot of expectation on myself and that’s why I’m very disappointed,” added Cook, who didn’t take any pleasure from seeing Lutalo Muhammad who had been selected ahead of him for the Olympics also fail to reach the final in Baku.
Cook, whose girlfriend British world champion Bianca Walkden rubbed her hands nervously throughout the bout as she watched from the stands, said he would regroup and come back and try and qualify for the Olympics in Rio next year.
He added he had no regrets about his change of nationality. “I feel it’s been easier in some ways, I can put the focus on my fights now and just focus on my training, and if I qualify I’m going to qualify and in Great Britain I possibly wouldn’t have had that chance,” he said.
Cook, who as a callow youth did compete for Britain in the 2008 Olympics losing in the bronze medal match, said he wasn’t prepared to stay in England nad experience the same crushing disappointment he had in 2012.
“I did everything possible to qualify for London, I was world number one and I won all the tournaments and fulfilled the criteria and it wasn’t good enough then so why would it have been good enough for Rio?” said Cook.
“I wasn’t going to put myself or my family through that again and that’s why we made the decision to go to Moldova. I’m just doing what’s best for me, realistically I’ve got six years left in my career, hopefully I’m going to have two shots left at an Olympic Games, and it’s given me the opportunity it wasn’t an easy decision of course but I think it was the right decision.”
Van Dijk claims cycling time trial gold for Netherlands
Ellen van Dijk proved Dutch cycling could cope without injured two-times Olympic champion Marianne Vos after she won gold for the Netherlands in the women’s individual time trial at the European Games yesterday.
In the absence of Vos, who pulled out of the inaugural continental games following a spate of injuries, van Dijk beat Ukraine’s Ganna Solovei and Dutch compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten to claim her nation’s first gold medal of the Games.
“It is the first European Games and that is quite special. This was a race I have been preparing for, for weeks,” 28-year-old van Dijk said.
“I have been training at high altitude. I wanted to be very strong in this period and that worked out great.
“Before the start I felt good. I was confident I could do this. But then the time trial is very hard to see how strong the competition is especially as there are not a lot of time trials during the season.
“The only thing you can really do is focus on your own time trial.”
There are a further three gold medals available in road cycling with the men’s time trial before the women’s and men’s road races on June 20 and 21. The European Games runs till June 28.