India's five-time world boxing champion M.C. Mary Kom had to settle for bronze after losing Wednesday's Olympic women's flyweight semi-final - then apologised for not bringing home gold. "Magnificent Mary", 29, suffered an 11-6 defeat to Britain's Nicola Adams, the world silver medallist.
"My whole country was hoping for me to win a gold medal, and I am sorry I have not come back with that," said Kom, who had to move up a weight category to fight in London. In a rematch of May's world championship quarter-final bout in Qinhuangdao, China, Adams counter-punched impressively and was too strong for Kom, who won the last of her five world golds in 2010.
Adams, 29, will face China's Ren Cancan in Thursday's final, which will be a repeat of May's world championships gold-medal bout which the Briton lost. Kom is India's only boxing medal success of the London Games after Vijender Singh failed in his bid to claim a second straight bronze on Monday when he lost his middleweight quarter-final.