Asiad: Mary Kom, Kavita end with bronze medals

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 semi-finals in Guangzhou 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 on Wednesday, conceded a slender 1-3 lead to Cancan in the opening two minutes and all through the bout, the Indian was left to chase the local favourite.

The Manipuri, who 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.

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 quarter-final bout.