WELSH light-heavyweight Nathan Thorley declared himself happy with a bronze medal after being outclassed by tough Mauritian Kennedy St Pierre.

The 21-year-old from Cardiff was no match for his more experienced opponent, who beat Fred Evans at 69kg in Delhi four years ago.

Thorley, who had stopped his last two opponents to make the semi-finals, was given two standing counts in the first round against St Pierre.

And when things didn’t improve Welsh boxing coach Colin Jones threw in the towel in the third to give the Mauritius man the TKO win.

“I knew he was a tough opponent. I sparred with him before and I knew I wasn’t going to put him away,” said Thorley afterwards.

“But it was stupid of me – I was coming off him and he was catching me.

“Unfortunately Colin threw the towel in and I do agree with that – there were some heavy shots coming in – but it would have been nice to finish the round.

“I was a bit tired,” he added. “It’s a long tournament and it does catch up with you but I’ve come away with a bronze medal from my first major tournament so I’m happy with that.

“I’ll sit down and have a chat with everyone now and see what kind of doors this has opened for me. Hopefully it’s opened quite a few.”

Jones said he had to make the call to pull his man out for his own safety.

“We knew that it was going to be tough. He’s an experienced fighter having done very well in Delhi, as we all know, and he’s gone up a couple of divisions,” said Jones.

“He punches hard and we’d like to have seen the contest out but Nathan got himself into a little bit of trouble that he couldn’t get out of and I thought it was the best decision to stop it.”

But Jones says the youngster has plenty of potential to improve on bronze at the next Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast in Australia in 2018.

“I think Nathan is a lad that we’ll be looking to take to the next Commonwealth Games going into the next four-year cycle and if he keeps doing well he’ll stay on the programme,” he said. “He’s one for the future.”