Sarita, Devendro settle for boxing silvers

Manipuri boxers L. Sarita Devi and L. Devendro Singh brought in two more medals for India at the Commonwealth Games after settling for silver in their respective final bouts at the SSE Hydro here Saturday.

While former World Champion Sarita went down 1:3 to Australia's Shelley Watts in the women's 57-60 kg final, Devendro lost a close bout 1:2 to defending champion Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland.

Sarita started her bout well to win the first round 30:27 but looked completely drained of energy at the start of the second. The 32-year-old veteran also fell down once in the second round which she lost with a reversed scoreline of 27:30.

The next two rounds totally belonged to Shelley, who looked much more fresh than the Indian policewoman, and bagged them with the same scorelines of 30:27.

The bronze medal went to Northern Ireland's Alanna Audley-Murphy and Mozambique's Maria Machongua.

Next up, Devendro also had to be satisfied with the men's 49 kg silver as his opponent, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist, convincingly won the first two rounds with the same score of 30:27.

Though the diminutive Indian won the last round 29:28, it was a tad bit late and Barnes was successful in defending his title.

Losing semi-finalists Fazil Kaggwa of Uganda and Welsh Ashley Williams took home the bronze.