Lovlina Borgohain signed off with a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics after losing 0-5 to reigning World champion Busenaz Surmeneli in the women's Welterweight (64-69kg) boxing semi-finals on Wednesday.
The defeat brought an end to India's campaign in the sport at the ongoing Games.
Up against, quite literally, a bully in the ring, Borgohain was completely out-punched by the gold medal favourite, who produced a thoroughly dominating performance.
The Assam boxer also coped a one-point deduction in the second round for not paying attention to the referee's instructions despite a couple of cautions.
The Indian girl's start was not all that bad, as she stood up to the strong challenge, but she came undone after Surmeneli got down to connecting her vicious hooks and body shots.
The third round was punishing for Borgohain, who faced two standing eight counts during the bout.
Nonetheless, she returns home a history-maker.
The 23-year-old, who started her career as a Muay Thai practitioner, is now only the third Indian boxer with a podium finish at the Games after Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012).
Her bronze is also India’s first Olympic boxing medal in nine years.
The Indian men's campaign ended in the quarter-finals stage after Satish Kumar (+91kg) went down to World champion Bakohodir Jalolov.
The other four male boxers bowed out after opening-round defeats.
Among the women, six-time World champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) lost in the pre-quarters, while Poja Rani (75kg) lost in the quarter-finals.
Surmeneli is also 23 and has collected two gold medals this year internationally.
The former middle-weight (75kg) boxer claims to have promised an Olympic medal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan back in 2015 itself.
