Chinese light heavyweight Lei Yuping lost to Belarussian Magomed Aripgadjiev on points 18-27 to be shut out of the semifinals of the boxing tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in Athens on August 24 evening.

Lei was overwhelmed by his powerful rival in the first two rounds and trailed 6-15 at the end of the second round, but he displayed an impressive fighting spirit to catch up to 15-16 when the third had half a minute to go. But the Belarussian brought the match under his control again in the fourth and won by a 9- point margin.

The points for each round were 1-6, 5-9, 9-5 and 3-7, with the points for Lei going first.

Lei had had an excellent performance in the first two rounds, as he outclassed Andriy Fedchuk of Ukraine, a bronze medalist at the Sydney 2000 Games, to advance into the last 8.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, light flyweight Zou Shiming achieved a historic breakthrough for Chinese boxing as he beat his Armenian opponent Aleksan Nalbadyan on points 20-12 to secure the first ever Olympic boxing medal for his country.

"I am very excited that I beat a great opponent. Chinese boxing had never reached this level (at the Olympic Games). I will go on, I feel the power on me and I will get the gold medal," said Zou, 23, after his win.

China, whose best ever result in the Olympic boxing tournaments was a fifth place in the 91kg category at Atlanta 1996, sent six boxers to the Athens Games. Zou, a silver medalist in light flyweight at the 2003 Bangkok world championships, was the only one left in the semifinal stage of the tournament.