Olympian Jitender Kumar (56kg) and Santosh Harijan (52kg) lost in the semi-finals to settle for bronze medals in the 16th Elite Men's International Boxing Tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Jitender, making a comeback to the international arena after his bronze medal winning performance at the 2009 Asian Championship, was up against Jakipov of Tajikistan.

The 22 year old took a 2-1 lead in the opening round but the Tajik boxer came back in the second to take a two-point advantage.

He further stretched the lead in the third and eventually went on to claim the victory at 12-8.

"I am disappointed with the result but satisfied my performance in the tournament. This was my first competition after a long break and I hope to do well with more match practice," Jitender said.

Santosh, a silver-medallist at the 34th National Games in Jharkhand, went down to Ali Baybozov of Kazakhstan.

Santosh, who was leading 2-1 after the first round, lost the advantage to the Kazakh boxer with the score tied at 7-7 after the second.

In the final round, Baybozov took the vital one point lead that helped him secure the win at 10-9.

Earlier in the tournament, Jai Bhagwan (60kg), making his first international appearance after the bronze medal winning performance at the Commonwealth Games [ Images ], had to bow out of the tournament due to illness.

Commonwealth Youth Games gold-medallist Balwinder Beniwal (64kg) had lost to Jukenbayev of Kazakhstan in his opening bout.