Iwan Thomas is first to exit from Strictly

Gold medal-winning former athlete Iwan Thomas and his partner Ola Jordan have become the first dancing partnership to be voted off Strictly Come Dancing.

The result wasn’t unexpected given that Iwan was bottom of the Strictly leaderboard after last night’s second dance. Now he has the unenviable honour of seeing his name added to the list of first-week exits, joining the likes of actors Brian Capron and Phil Daniels, tennis champ Martina Hingis, former MP Edwina Currie and last year’s deflated chef Gregg Wallace.

“I want the chance to do better,” said Iwan, after his name was announced for a dance-off spot. But, sadly, despite Len’s advice that ”less is more” and the suggestion that Iwan needed to tone down the aggression in his dance, Iwan got the thumbs down from all four judges.

“I’ve loved every minute of Strictly,” said Iwan, 41, after the decision was announced. Training with Ola has been amazing and all the contestants are so lovely. I don’t want to go home.“

Ola added that Iwan “was a wonderful person and that she’d loved dancing with him”.

Joining Iwan in a tense dance-off was, somewhat surprisingly, singer Jamelia. Many people had expected ‘swingometer’ man Jeremy Vine to be in the fray or boxer Anthony Ogogo.

They both get to fight again and will be competing against their fellow celebs in next week’s movie-themed show. And Ainsley has promised viewers a penguin shuffle… whatever that is.