Marykom falls at final hurdle

Young Indian pugilist M Chungneijang Marykom lost to Hulya Sahin of Turkey in the final of the 48 kgs light-flyweight category at the inaugural AIBA Women's World championships, which ended on Sunday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, US.

The Manipur girl created history when she became first Indian to reach the final, after defeating Jamei Behl of Canada 21-9 in the semi-final on Friday.

In the preliminaries on Wednesday, she forced her opponent Nadya Hokmi of Poland out in the third round.

Marykom was a gold medallist at the first Asian women's championships in Bongkok in August.

The Russians, with four champions, finished first with 33 points, while Hungary and Canada tied for the second place with 20 points.

Only three countries took home more medals than the United States team -- Canada nine, Russia eight and Hungary five.

All five Hungarian medalists left Scranton with gold or silver medals.

Sweden joined the U.S. with four medalists.

Although the Russians were second to the United States in total medals won, they won four of their six bouts in the finals and had the most World champions. They were Elena Sabitova (45 kgs ), Elena Karpetcheva (54 kgs), Olga Domouladzhanova (81 kgs) and Irina Sinteskaya (67kgs).

Sweden, with Frida Walberg (63.5 kgs) and Anna Laurell (75 kgs), was the only other country to win more than one gold medal.

Turkey's Hulya Sahin (48 kgs) and China Zhang Maomao (57 kgs) rounded off the list of World champions.

India had eight boxers at the event but all the others bowed out in the preliminaries.

Other Indian results:
67 kgs: Jenny Lairemliani lost to Natalie Brown (Jamaica) - RSC-2
63.5 kgs: Jyoti Sharma lost to Terez Szabo (Hungary) - RSC-3.
81 kg: K. Lekha lost to Tanya Fowler (Canada) - 23-21
45 kg: Lai Renthlei lost to Camelia Negrea (Romania) - 13-2
57 kg: Laishram Devi lost to Alexandra Matheus (Denmark) - 16-8
60 kg: Seema Devi lost to Eva Wahlstrom (Finland) - 14-1