5th AIBA Women's World Championships Ningbo City 2008 official page

It took the dying minutes but two-times world champion Mária Kovács from Hungary became another big name casualty at the AIBA Women's World Championships Ningbo City 2008 on Monday after losing her 80kg preliminary bout against China's national champion Tang Jie Li 7-6 in day three action in the Ningbo Youngor Gymnasium.

Kovács, 27, claimed gold in the 2006 and 2005 Women's World Championships and two silver medals, in addition to claiming the European title three times and the Hungarian national championships an incredible eight times. However, all that experience and success didn't count for anything as Kovács, down 6-5 with 20 seconds remaining, tied the bout with 10 seconds to go before Asian champion Tang claimed victory by a nose (using horse racing parlance).

Pic: Mária Kovács has been boxing since 1998

The win in the final bout of the day capped another excellent performance from the host nation, who has still to lose a bout. China currently leads the team rankings with 10 wins from 10 bouts, followed by Russia with nine and four defeats and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea with eight victories and one defeat.

Another two-times world champion Jong Hyang Ri, 26, claimed the first of three victories for the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea on Monday after beating 20-year-old European Championship bronze medallist Gulseda Basibutun of Turkey 5:2 in a 48kg bout. Ri, a world champion in 2002 and 2006, has her eye on another championship title before possible going for Olympic gold if AIBA's application for women's boxing to be included in the London 2012 Olympic Games is successful (a decision is due at the end of 2009).

Pic: Jong Hyang Ri of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 

"I want to win the Women's World Championship again as this will bring a lot of joy for people back home, especially my mother and sister who have supported me a lot," Ri, who is coached by her father (a former national champion), said. "I'm not very  happy with my first performance today but there is a long way to go. All the athletes are new here so anyone could surprise."

Russia's Sofya Ochigava, 21, was another two-times world champion to win on Monday. The two-times European champion, four-times national champion and team captain beat Poland's 2007 and 2008 European Union silver medallist Karolina Graczyk, 22, when the referee stopped the 57kg contest in the first round due to a head injury.

Other key results saw the Philippines' Analisa Cruz beat 2006 and 2007 Pan American champion Benavidez Paola of Argentina 6:5 in their 50kg preliminary bout, England's Nicola Adams, 26, claimed an impressive 11:2 victory over two-times Russian national champion Liudmila Bondarenko, 22, in their 54kg clash while Jamila Jones' (TRI) run in the 57kg draw came to an end with a hard fought 8:7 defeat against Turkey's 2007 European Union champion Nagihan Gul.
 
Pic: Trinidad's Jamila Jones 
 
Day four of the AIBA Women's World Championships Ningbo City 2008 will see the last of the preliminaries with the 52kg, 60kg, 63kg, 66kg, 70kg and 75kg divisions in action on Tuesday starting at 14:00 (local time).