Cindy Ngamba won the Refugee Olympic Team their first ever medal on Thursday when she settled for bronze in women’s boxing.
Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon but sought safe haven in Britain aged 11, was beaten by Panama’s seventh seed Atheyna Bylon by split decision in the semifinals of the women’s 75kg category.
That denied her a place in Saturday’s final but boxing hands out bronze medals for losing semifinalists.
Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov won his second Olympic title, beating France’s Billal Bennama in the men’s 51kg final.
China’s Chang Yuan also claimed gold, beating Turkey’s Akbas Hatice in the women’s 54kg category.
The Refugee Olympic Team first competed at the Rio 2016 Games and is designed to represent forcibly displaced people worldwide.
ALSO READ | Boxer Khyzhniak wins Ukraine’s third gold of Games
There are 37 athletes competing for the team in Paris from more than a dozen countries.
The 25-year-old Ngamba is a lesbian, which is illegal in her native Cameroon.
She qualified for the Olympic competition by right and won two matches in Paris to reach the semifinals.
Ngamba had trouble dealing with her taller Panamanian opponent but continued to attack throughout the match.
She was behind on points after the first round but came back in the second, leaving it all to fight for in the final round.
Bylon had a point deducted in the third round but the Panamanian still did enough to get the win, much to the displeasure of the crowd at Roland Garros, the home of the French Open tennis tournament.
Ngamba did not speak to reporters after the fight but Bylon said she had “great respect” for her opponent.
“She was very strong,” said Bylon. “All of my rivals are very strong and they are all aiming for the same goal.”
After moving to Britain as a child, Ngamba had a tough upbringing, bullied at school for her poor English and her weight.
She took up boxing and qualified by right for the Olympic competition.
Britain wanted to select her for the Paris Games and boxing officials appealed unsuccessfully for her to receive a British passport.
Dusmatov won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and he added to his collection by beating home favourite Bennama by unanimous decision.
The number two-seeded Uzbek gave up 22cm in height to his top-seeded opponent and had the French crowd against him.
But he gave another demonastration of the class that has also landed him world and Asian Games gold medals, coming through an entertaining contest.
Chang also scored a unanimous points decision to beat Akbas.
