This Article is From Nov 24, 2010

Asian Games: Mary Kom settles for bronze

Asian Games: Mary Kom settles for bronze
Guangzhou: Indian women boxers ended their Asian Games campaign rather disappointingly with five-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) and Kavita Goyat (75kg) settling for bronze medals after losing in the semifinals here on Wednesday.

Mary Kom, who has won five world titles in 46kg and 48kg category, lost 7-11 to reigning 51kg world champion Ren Cancan of China.

Kavita, on the other hand, went down 1-5 to another Chinese, Jinzi Li, in her last-four stage bout.

Mary Kom, who turned 28 today, conceded a slender 1-3 lead to Cancan in the opening two minutes and all thorugh the bout, the Indian was left to chase the local favoutite.

The Manipuri mother-of-two, who is a Khel Ratna awardee and has been dubbed 'Magnificent Mary' by the International Boxing Association, tried to fight back in the final two minutes but Cancan managed to hold her own to come out triumphant.

Earlier, Kavita was beaten comprehensively by Li at the Foshan Gymnasium here.

The Indian's only scoring punch of the bout came in the opening round, in which the home favourite managed three.

Both the boxers failed to get on the scoresheet in the next two rounds.

In the final two minutes, Li managed to seal the issue in her favour by knocking off a couple of points.

The third Indian in fray, Preeti Beniwal (60kg), had crashed out after injuring her knee during her quarterfinal bout.
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