O'Rourke Sisters Secure European Medals For Ireland

Sisters Lisa and Aoife O'Rourke have both advanced to the semi-finals at the European Boxing Championships in Bulgaria, securing at least two more medals for Team Ireland.

World middleweight champion Aoife scraped through her quarter-final against Poland's Agata Kaczmarska on a 3-2 split decision after three hard rounds. The 29-year-old from Castlerea faced the reigning 80-plus-kg world champion in a back-and-forth contest that went down to the final judge's scorecard, with two officials giving O'Rourke two rounds and two others seeing it the opposite way. She now faces Russia's Saltanat Medenova on Wednesday.

Lisa O'Rourke Dominates heavyweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">Light-Heavyweight Quarter-Final

Younger sister Lisa cruised through her light-heavyweight quarter-final with a unanimous decision over England's Emily Asquith, according to Boxing Ireland. The 24-year-old, who won world gold in 2022 and silver last year, boxed her way to a clear victory and will meet Ukraine's Iryna Lutsak in Wednesday's semi-final. "It's hard come the quarter-finals with the medal on the line," she told Boxing Ireland. "You don't forget about the medal, but go in like any fight, give it your best and hope that's enough."

Aoife reflected on her tough battle with Kaczmarska after the win. "That girl never gave in and I'm just thankful I had that bit of fitness to keep me going through all three rounds," she said, per the BBC. "I know it's easy looking in and people saying 'you're taller so just keep her out', but she just kept coming forward."

Three other Irish boxers were eliminated earlier in the day. Heavyweight Jack Marley dropped a 4-1 split decision to Georgia's Georgii Kushitashvli, while Evelyn Igharo lost unanimously to England's Chantelle Reid in the 70kg quarter-final. Daina Moorehouse fell 4-1 to Spain's Laura Fuentes Fernandez in the flyweight quarter-final. Both O'Rourke sisters box their semi-finals on Wednesday.

Source: bbc.co.uk