Thomas Stalker 'devastated' after narrow quarter-final defeat

Great Britain's boxing team will take a record-equalling five medals away from the London Olympics but the feat was tinged with sadness after a heart-breaking light-welterweight defeat for Thomas Stalker at ExCeL.

World number one Stalker lost a quality contest against veteran Mongolian Munkh-Erdene Uranchimeg, leaving himself too much to do in a frantic final round and ultimately coming out on the wrong end of a 23-22 verdict.

If it was one of the finest men's contests of the competition so far, it will come as no solace to Stalker, who was clearly heartbroken as he left the ring, and whose team's appeal of the verdict was rebuffed by AIBA's competition committee.

Prior to confirmation of the appeal, Stalker's coach Dave Alloway said: "Thomas gave it his best shot. He is devastated because he wanted to get a medal at his home Olympics. It was very close but the judges judge it the way they see it."

Stalker's loss means Great Britain will match the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, when they secured two gold medals and three bronze.

Nicola Adams will get the first of the gold chances when she faces old foe Ren Cancan in the women's flyweight final today.

Adams is now just nine minutes away from realising her 17-year-old dream of hanging an Olympic gold medal around her neck after cruising through her semi-final 11-6 against India's indefatigable Mary Kom.

The Leeds 29-year-old boxed superbly amid another raucous ExCeL atmosphere to repel the relentless advances of the smaller Kom and book a gold medal match against world number one Cancan.

Afterwards Adams, who almost gave up the sport four years ago due to funding concerns, insisted she had no fear of returning to the ring against the Chinese fighter, to whom she has lost in each of the last two world finals.

Adams, who also holds a one-point win over Ren from the Strandja Cup in February this year, said: "I've been training for this moment since I was 12 years old and think it is finally here is just incredible.

"I am going to treat it like a normal tournament, and hopefully the crowd will give me a boost to edge away and get the gold. I've beaten her once before and I'm definitely confident I can go out and do it again."