Congratulations to Team Ireland’s Katie Taylor and Michael O’Reilly as they are each guaranteed at least a bronze medal at the European Games in Baku.Disappointment though for Darren O’Neill.
Taylor defeated Sweden’s Ida Lundblad in the quarter-finals and was on the attack from the opening bell.
Taylor took the opening round on all three judges’ scorecards and maintained her dominance early in the second round as she unleashed some powerful blows to the advancing Swede. The Swede kept trying to take the fight to Taylor but had no way through.
Taylor went into the third with the opening two rounds in the bag and sensed that her opponent was running out of steam as she was made to miss continuously with the five-time world champion picking her punches and easing through the two-minutes.
Taylor was awarded the fight on a unanimous 3:0 score and will next fight home-town boxer Yana Alekseevna from Azerbaijan on Friday morning for a place in the final.
Shortly afterwards Portlaoise middleweight Michael O’Reilly added to Ireland’s boxing medals as he proved much too strong for Slovenia’s Aljaz Venko in this morning’s quarter-final in Baku.
O’Reilly was in confident mood against the opponent and picked his punches at will wearing down the Slovenian.
The Irish champion danced his way around the ring and was enjoying plenty of success as Venko’s guard was breached on many occasions, with an old would opening up on his right eye midway through the round.
O’Reilly won the first round man and dominated the secon and third rounds with his opponent having to receive medical attention to his cut eye.
The body shots kept getting through the Slovenian’s high hands and a second stoppage for the eye cut gave O’Reilly’s opponent a chance to catch a breath. And it helped Venko as he enjoyed some success in the final minute, landing a couple of fine efforts on the Irish man, however, O’Reilly still took the round on all three cards.
O’Reilly opened up and threw some devastating blows with the uppercut proving particularly effective, and while Venko continued to come forward, the unanimous decision was never in doubt.
Darren O’Neill was beaten on a split decision by Gevorg Manukian from Ukraine in a bruising heavyweight contest.
O’Neill started well against his 21-year-old opponent, enjoying some early success, but Manukian landed the , which proved favourable with the judges.
The former middleweight from Kilkenny took on a more aggressive approach to the second round with the intention of impressing the judges.
O’Neill did enough to take the second round on two of the judges’ scorecards, which left the fight in the balance going into the final round.
Manukian started to tire in the final round and O’Neill, despite looking the smaller fighter, started to find his range with a more composed performance, however, Manukian still managed some success with the odd heavy shot sending O’Neill backwards.
At the bell, many thought O’Neill had done enough and he raised his hand in celebration but while two of the judges scored the round to O’Neill, the final tally would hand the fight 2-1 to the Ukrainian as the Irish man misses out on a medal.
