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PHOTOS: India's highs and lows on Day 12
India's star woman boxer M C Mary Kom settled for a bronze medal after losing her 51kg semi-final bout to Great Britain's world No 2 Nicola Adams, while Tintu Luka eased into the semi-finals of the 800m run on Day 12 of the Olympics, on Wednesday.
- London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage
-Congratulate Mary Kom on her bronze win
'Magnificent Mary', from Manipur, fought bravely but just could not breach the defence of her taller opponent, a two-time World Championship runner-up in the flyweight division, and was outclassed 11-6 at the ExCel Arena.
PHOTOS: India's highs and lows on Day 12
With no box-off in the programme for losing semi-finalists, Mary got one of the two bronze medals on offer. The medal will be awarded at the end of the gold medal contest, between Adams and China's World champion Ren Cancan, on Thursday.
-Congratulate Mary Kom on her bronze win
Mary's medal took India's tally to four --- one silver and three bronze -- which is one more than the country's haul in the 2008 Games in Beijing, where it had a gold medal too through rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra.
Wednesday's limelight was on Mary, a five-time World champion in the 48kg category and a mother of twins boys.
But she emerged a loser in all the judges' cards. The scores read: 3-1, 2-1, 3-2, 3-2 in favour of the Briton.
PHOTOS: India's highs and lows on Day 12
Earlier, India's Luka entered the semi-finals of the women's two-lap race by finishing third in 2 minutes, 1.75 seconds in heat number two behind reigning World champion Mariya Savinova (2:01.56) of Russia and Alice Schmidt (2:01.65) of the United States at the Olympic Stadium.
The top three in each of the six heats and best six others advance to the semi-finals, to be held on Thursday (0005 IST on Friday).
The 23-year-old Indian, coached by former Asian track queen P T Usha, just about overtook Malika Akkaoui (2:01.78) of Morocco with a desperate lunge at the line to finish third.
Luka was a tad slower than her season's best of 2:01.09s and will have to slice a few seconds from today's effort if she wants to qualify for the final round.
Luka, who has a personal best of 1:59.17s, clocked the 13th best time in the heats, going into the semi-finals, in which 24 runners will compete, from which eight will make it to the final round.
PHOTOS: India's highs and lows on Day 12
Luka's entry into the semi-finals follows the failure of top discus thrower Vikas Gowda to get into the medal bracket late on Tuesday night after he came up with a below-par performance and finished a disappointing eighth in the final round.
The 29-year-old Gowda, who had qualified for the final round with a throw of 65.20m, surprisingly could not even cross the 65m mark when it mattered the most, much to the dismay of the Indian contingent, which was hoping for a better show from him.
The United States-based Gowda's first attempt of 64.79m turned out to be his best throw, as he probably found the cold conditions and the intermittent drizzle too tough to deal with.