Bolton's Refugee Olympic team boxer Cindy Ngamba claimed a bronze medal after being beaten by Panama's Atheyna Bylon in the women's 75kg semi-final tonight in Paris.

The 25-year-old fighter lost by split decision but earned the Refugee Olympic Team's first ever medal at a Games.

Ngamba was born in Cameroon and moved to the UK at the age of 11, but has faced challenges obtaining citizenship since and was at one point sent to a detention camp with her brother, Kennet, due to a paperwork issue.

She feared deportation back to Cameroon, where a return would be unsafe due to her sexuality as homosexuality is illegal there.

An energetic start to the bout saw Ngamba clipped by Bylon a couple of times and although the refugee fighter grew into the round, she struggled to land her punches and the first round went unanimously to the Panama boxer.

The second round resembled a wrestling match at the start, but both fighters went on to land some good body shots and Ngamba threw a flurry of punches to cheers from the crowd to level the contest.

Bylon threw a tidy uppercut at the start of a scrappy third round, but was then penalised for repeated holding.

Ngamba managed to break through and land a couple more blows but Bylon was ruled the victor.

It was not the colour of medal Ngamba had hoped to bring back to Bolton but she did herself, and her friends in the town, proud.