Olympics Day 10: Mary Kom assures a medal, Gowda also shines

London: MC Mary Kom assured herself at least of a bronze medal when she beat Tunisia's Maroua Rahali to reach the women's flyweight (51kg) semi-finals here on Monday.

The five-time world champion thrashed her opponent 15-6 to ensure India its fourth medal in the London Olympics 2012.

The 29-year-old won her bout having dominated from the start. She exhibited a great show in the ring, winning all four rounds to claim an unbeatable nine-point advantage.

Boxer Mary Kom assured India would at least get a bronze, its fourth medal at the London Olympics.

Later on the day, Beijing bronze medallist Vijender Singh’s London Olympics dreams got over after he lost to Uzbekistan’s Abbas Atoev in a 75kg quarterfinal.

Trailing by two points, Vijender went all out throwing punches left and right in the third and final round. However, his efforts fell short as he lost it 7-5.

Meanwhile, Vikas Gowda qualified for the men's discus final. The US-based Indian threw 65.20 metres in his second attempt to make the cut. The automatic qualification standard for the discus final was set at 65m.

However, it turned out to be a bad day for the Indian shooters. Gangan Narang, who won India’s first medal – a bronze - and Sanjeev Rajput failed to qualify for the 50m rifle three positions.

Narang finished 20th with a score of 1,164, while Rajput ended at 26th with 1,161. Narang shot 398 in prone, 377 standing and 389 while kneeling. Rajput scored 395 in prone, 378 in standing and 388 while kneeling.

Elsewhere, Manavjit Singh Sandhu failed to enter the final of men's trap event as he finished 16th in the qualification round. The former world champion got a total score of 119 with an average of 0.952. His best performance came in the fourth round where he had a perfect score of 25. However, it was a little late as he scored a lowly 22 in the previous round.

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