She couldn’t take down the defending champion, but Brigitte Yagüe Enrique can still call herself an Olympic medalist after a strong showing at the London Games…

The 31-year-old Spanish taekwondo practitioner had to settle for a silver at the 2012 Olympic Games, after losing to China’s Wu Jingyu on Wednesday in the flyweight (49-kilogram) division in women’s taekwondo.

The top-ranked Wu, who won the gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, defeated Yagüe 8-1 in a fast-paced final that saw Wu almost always attacking and using her flexibility to nail Yagüe with repeated close-range kicks.

Yagüe, like the rest of the competitors who had to face Wu this week, never really had a chance in the match. In top form, Wu won two previous matches so decisively they were ended early after she racked up leads considered too big to close.

“She’s become much stronger since Beijing,” said Yagüe. “It was difficult to try to predict where she might be kicking us.”

But Yagüe still has plenty of reason to smile… After all, she’s earned her first Olympic medal after a disappointing performance at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where she lost in the first round 5-9 to Yaowapa Boorapolchai of Thailand. She missed the 2008 Olympic Games due to an injury.

The bronze medals went to Thailand’s Chanatip Sonkham and Croatia’s Lucija Zaninovic.