There was disappointment for the women’s team at the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Turkey, when Cavan’s Ceire Smith and Christina Desmond, who was so impressive in her previous bout when she defeated the Dutch number one Nouchka Fontijan, went out of the competition.
Both fighters put in big performances but could not convince the judges to send them through to the quarterfinals. Smith lost to Ukranian Tetyna Kob 1-2 with middleweight Desmond falling 0-3 to Hungary’s Petra Scatmari.
David Oliver Joyce made it through to the semifinals with a convincing 3-0 win over Vazgen Sufaryants in the lightweight division with Brendan Irvine following him in a fraught bout against Ellie Konki from France.
Flyweight Irvine won the first round on a majority 2-1 but the second round went with the French boxer, the judges again split. A stronger third round from the European Games silver medallist was enough to pull him through on a split decision.
Darren O’Neil, however, lost out in a close bout with Abdulkadir Abdullayev. They were level 19-19 going into the third round with O’Neil bowing out on a split decision, two of the judges siding with the Azeri heavyweight.
Quarter Finals
51kg C Smith (Ireland) lost to T Kob (Ukraine) 1-2
52kg B Irvine (Ireland) beat E Konki (France) 2-1
60kg K Taylor (Ireland) beat Y Rasmussen (Denmark) 3-0
60kg D Oliver Joyce (Ireland) beat V Sufaryants (Belarus) 3-0
75kg C Desmond (Ireland) lost to P Scatmari (Hungary) 0-3
91kg D O’Neill (Ireland) lost to A Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) 1-2
