Mary Kom settles for bronze in World Championships

Ulan-Ude (Russia): Six-time champion MC Mary Kom will have to settle for a bronze medal in the ongoing Women's World Boxing Championships after losing her semi-final bout of the 51-kg flyweight category to second-seed Busenaz Cakiroglu of Turkey in a split 1:4 verdict on Saturday.

In a fiercely contested bout, third-seed Mary Kom delivered timely punches and looked on course of winning her first gold in the 51-kg division.

However, Busenaz, who is a European Championships and European Games gold medallist, emerged better of the two as she used her agility and reach much better than the 36-year-old Indian and won the bout.

The judges' points at the end stood at 29-28, 27-30, 28-29, 28-29, 27-30 in Busenaz's favour and Mary Kom bowed out of the competition.

India did appeal the decision but it was turned down. As per AIBA's instructions, the protest would've been granted only if the score read 3:2 or 3:1. However, the verdict in Mary Kom's match read 4:1 and hence the yellow card was not accepted by the technical committee.

Following the match, a disappointed Mary Kom took to Twitter to question the decision. Tagging Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mary Kom wrote: "How and why. Let the world know how much right and wrong the decision is..."

How and why. Let the world know how much right and wrong the decision is....https://t.co/rtgB1f6PZy. @KirenRijiju @PMOIndia

— Mary Kom (@MangteC) October 12, 2019

Before Saturday's loss, the only time Mary Kom had a medal of a lesser colour than gold was in 2001 when she had to accept defeat in the final.

The London Olympic bronze medallist, who has six gold medals from this tournament, on Thursday created history when she broke a tie with Cuban men's legend Felix Savon to become the only boxer across male and female categories to amass eight World Championships medals.