Zou Shiming failed to go further in Athens but claimed China's first Olympic boxing medal when he lost to Yan Bhartelemy Varela of Cuba 29-17 in the light flyweight (48kg) semi-finals on August 27.

Zou Shiming claimed China's first Olympic boxing medal

Zou failed to repeat a staggering win over the 2001 world champion as what he did in last year's world championships in Bangkok where he went on to take the silver medal.

The 23-year-old Chinese opened the contest stronly with a 6-2 lead in the first round and up to 11-7 after the second.

But the third round turned to be in Bhartelemy Varela's favor, seeing Zou struggling once the Cuban stepped up a gear and trailing 20-14 on the scoreboard after the third round before losing 29-17.

Zou's coach Li Qingsheng said, "Zou didn't give all out today because of the lack of experience."

Bhargtelemy Varela echoed, saying that "Zou is promising, and I won the semi just because I've been better prepared."

"The match processed more breezily than I imagined. I thought Zou should have performed better since we've met at the worlds where he beat me and went on for the silver," he added.

"I don't have much experience of big competitions like this," said Zou, from the southwest province of Guizhou. "Though I lost, I've learned something here and hope to do better at the Beijing Olympic Games."

Bhartelemy Varela, who earned a direct qualification to the Olympics in Athens after taking the title at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, will next face Turkey's Atagun Yalcinkaya.

In an earlier semifinal of the light flyweight class, 18-year- old Atagun Yalcinkaya of Turkey beat Russian southpaw Sergey Kazakov 26-20, ruling out the reigning world champion's gold quest for Sunday's Olympic final.