BEIJING — To be honest, Anju Jason is more comfortable beating eggs than taekwondo opponents at this point.

Jason, the first Olympian from the tiny Marshall Islands, lost an opening-round match at 176 pounds yesterday to Jason Cook of Great Britain, 7-0, at Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium.

When Jason is not spinning and kicking on the mat, the Radford alum is whipping up food in Honolulu.

"It was what I expected," Jason said of his Olympic loss. "I'm a full-time chef at the Panda Express."

Jason fell to Cook, 17, the youngest competitor.

Jason scored a point on a defensive kick, but also had a point deducted. He fell out of the tournament when Cook failed to reach the gold-medal match, which would have allowed Jason a chance to compete in the bracket for bronze.

Making history helped make the loss easier to accept for Jason, 20.

"It's nice that we get to go to the Olympic Games," he said. "A lot of people don't know about our country. We're very small, so we don't get as much exposure as bigger countries."

There will be another Olympics for Jason, if the chef-turned-athlete has anything to say about it.

"Definitely 2012 (Olympics in London)," Jason said. "I'll be training, training, training — that's about it. I'll try to enter more tournaments and get more experience."

And if there's a next time, Jason expects to spend a little more time training — and a little less in the kitchen.

"We'll try to work around it this time," he said.

U.S. LIKELY TO FINISH SECOND IN GOLD RACE

BEIJING — With just two days left before the end of the Olympic Games, some U.S. sports officials were fretting yesterday about a likely U.S. second-place finish in the gold-medal count, far behind China, and wondering what went wrong this month.

U.S. athletes have suffered bitter disappointments in events such as track and field competitions and boxing, while top-ranked U.S. teams in softball, women's water polo and other sports have lost to upstart underdogs in gold medal matches.

Making matters worse, the beleaguered Americans have been powerless to stop Chinese athletes, who have pulled far ahead in the gold-medal tally.

By the end of yesterday, the U.S. team had won 31 gold medals behind the 47 earned by the Chinese delegation. U.S. athletes, however, were still leading in total medals at 102 to the 89 medals won by the Chinese.

Another 44 gold medals will be awarded in the last two days of the Olympics this weekend, including eight in track-and-field events where U.S. athletes have traditionally been strong. This year, however, U.S. track team members have struggled, and the chances of a come-from-behind win in total gold medals are slim.

A second-place U.S. gold-medal finish in Beijing would mark a first for the Americans since the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.

The United States has won the gold-medal race in 16 of the 26 modern Olympic Games.