LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr
CONNACHT WOMEN SHANNON Sweeney and Aoife O’Rourke advanced to their finals at flyweight and middleweight respectively at the European Boxing Championships on Thursday, while Olympic lightweight Kellie Harrington tasted defeat for the first time since 2021 as she exited at the semi-final stage in Belgrade.
Niamh Fay, like her fellow Dubliner Harrington, will take home bronze from these Europeans after falling at the penultimate hurdle at bantamweight.
But Sweeney and O’Rourke will box for gold after winning semis of very different degrees of difficulty.
Mayo woman Sweeney, who boxes out of St Anne’s in Westport, had previously won a European bronze in 2022 but this time around, she will upgrade to silver at the very least after earning a unanimous decision over Armenia’s Anush Grigoryan.
It was Sweeney’s second successive 5-0 verdict after she upset Spanish top seed Laura Fuentes at the quarter-final stage.
Sweeney, whose semi-final victory also guarantees over €9,000 in prize money, will compete for 50kg gold on Saturday.
Roscommon’s three-time European middleweight champion O’Rourke found herself in a hole as she dropped the first round on four of the five judges’ scorecards against Turkey’s slick counter-puncher Isildar Busra, but the Castlrea native produced a stirring comeback to win the bout on a split decision following a judges’ review.
In a tense, high-paced and occasionally electrifying 75kg semi, O’Rourke’s come-forward pressure and accuracy began to pay dividends in a second round which she took 3-2.
Trailing on two cards, level on two more, and up on one, O’Rourke steamed into the third and final round and won it convincingly, as has become something of a trademark for the Rossie.
Like her fellow westerner Sweeney, O’Rourke will box for gold on Saturday when she will aim to become a four-time European champion.
Kellie Harrington’s tournament, meanwhile, ended at the last-four stage at 60kg, where she was beaten on a split decision by Russian-born Serbian representative Natalia Shadrina.
Harrington beat the same opponent on a unanimous decision to take European gold last year and although Shadrina was the home-country fighter, there was no controversy about this reversal.
Shadrina was worthy of her close victory, landing the more meaningful and eye-catching shots to turn around a narrow first-round deficit and squeeze past the Irishwoman who had entered the ring unbeaten in 32 bouts.
Harrington, 34, was far from her best and was completely magnanimous in a defeat which is hardly disastrous: there is a degree to which these Europeans have a ‘warm-up’ feel to them as certain athletes seek to peak three months further down the line in Paris.
Niamh Fay has also bowed out at the semi-final stage following a unanimous-decision defeat to Romania’s Lacramioara Perijoc in an untidy bout at 54kg.
Fay, a former European champion at Youth and U22 age grades, departs with her first senior international medal, a bronze.
