Rio 2016: Savannah Marshall suffers more Olympic disappointment but this time it's on her terms

The Hartlepool-based fighter went down on a split decision against Nouchka Fontijn

Marshall, right in red, looks on as Fontijn's fist is raised (Getty)

This time Savannah Marshall lost on her own terms, knowing that there was nothing more she could have done and thinking that perhaps she had done enough to win.

Marshall was beaten in the quarter-final of the middleweight competition on Wednesday afternoon, pipped over four rounds by a tough Dutchwoman she had failed to beat the last four times they had met.

It was one of those Olympic contests that could have gone either way, certainly not bad enough to be compared with the dire recent pair of decisions, but close enough to open debate on what exactly are the judges here looking for. It was revealed - after the split decision in favour of Nouchka Fontijn was announced - that the two judges who voted in favour of Fontijn had also been involved in the two outrageous decisions earlier this week.

An hour before Marshall's fight it was announced by AIBA, the organisation in control of the boxing at the Olympics, that a "handful" of their carefully selected officials had been withdrawn from duty. It was assumed that the two sets of judges from Monday night's heavyweight final and Michael Conlan's bantamweight quarter-final on Tuesday, the two fights with results that were truly shocking, had all been dropped. There are three scoring judges for each fight.

Marshall never once stopped going forward, chasing and throwing punches relentlessly for the entire four rounds of two minutes. It was Marshall's second fight in Rio and Fontijn, who was seeded at two, was in the ring for the first time, but she was huffing and puffing from midway through the third round.

"There is no satisfaction getting this far," said Marshall, who was favourite for the gold and the reigning world champion going into London. "I'm further than I was in London but I'm still going home without the gold." Marshall was the ninth of the British team of twelve to leave boxing here in Rio without a medal.

I'm further than I was in London but I'm still going home without the gold

&#13; <p>Savannah Marshall</p>&#13;

A few minutes before Marshall fought it was the long overdue arrival of one of Olympic boxing's pin-ups when American Claressa Shields started her campaign to retain her gold medal at middleweight; Shields easily beat Russia's Laroslava Iakushina and looks untouchable right now.

Shields was just 17 years-of-age when she won gold in London, is currently on an unbeaten run of 49 fights and has lost just once in 76 contest; the woman that beat her was Marshall in 2012 at the World championships.

Nicola Adams, like Shields a gold medal winner in London, fights in her semi-final on Thursday when she meets her bitter rival Cancan Ren in a repeat of that glorious final in east London in the summer of 2012.

"We both know how to win and it is never easy against her," claimed Adams, who is 33 years-of-age and is expected to retire before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. "I came here to repeat history and that is all I want to do. Two gold medals sounds very nice." Joe Joyce, the artist, diving instructor and former cheerleader from south London, will have his semi-final at super-heavyweight on Friday.

The fall-out from both the decision in the heavyweight final and the Conlan fight, continued to dominate proceedings at the boxing venue and it was reported by a senior member of the American team that Vladimir Nikitin, who was gifted the verdict against Conlan, will withdraw from Thursday's semi-final. Nikitin has an awful gash on the side of his head and clearly had stitches in the wound when he fought Conlan. Sadly, Conlan will be unable to replace the injured boxer.