Mary Kom lords the ring in 2006

Undated (UNI) She floated like a butterfly and quite literally stung like a bee to emerge as the biggest star on the Indian boxing horizon this year. Manipur pugilist MC Mary Kom -- crowned world champion for the third consecutive time -- summed up how women stole the limelight from men in a sport, which is considered 'show-business with blood'.

Mary Kom and the rest of the Indian women pugilists made their mark before home crowd, amid growing clamour to include women boxing in the 2012 London Olympics.

The Indian men, however, failed to live up to the promise they showed at the start of the year and returned with just two Bronze medals from the Doha Asian Games.

The year started with the 18th Commonwealth Games where the men pugilists came back with a rich haul of one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze.

Akhil Kumar was undoubtedly the star of the show as he became only the second Indian, after Ali Qamar, to win a boxing Gold in the Games, when he won the 54kg category.

The Haryana Pugilist was honoured with an Arjuna Award following his triumph and he continued to raise expectations by clinching the Gold in the 10th South Asian Games in Sri Lanka.

However, he failed to end the year on a high as he returned without a medal from the Asian Games, crashing out in the preliminary stage.

''I am heartbroken. This was the biggest disappointment of my career and has left me shattered,'' Akhil, who otherwise performed exceptionally well, told UNI after the setback.

But all is not lost for Akhil and the boxer is optimistic about his chances of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

On a brighter note, the SAF Games were the high point for Indian men this year as they won four Gold, as many Silver and a Bronze.

But despite the good show, the Indians failed to land the knockout punch as Pakistan walked away with top honours with seven Gold medals in their bag. And the fact that the level of competition at the South Asian Games is not very high made the Indian medal haul look all the more meagre.

More UNI PM AY GC1318