TOKYO OLYMPIC BRONZE medallist Aidan Walsh has suffered a setback in his bid to reach a second Games after he lost a unanimous decision to Brazilian Wanderson de Oliveira in the penultimate qualification tournament in Italy.

Belfast’s Walsh, 26, may receive another chance to punch his ticket to Paris at the final qualifiers in Bangkok in May, but he will first need to be selected over fellow light-middleweights Dean Walsh — who beat him in the 2022 national semis — and Eugene McKeever.

In a pulsating last-32 bout with his fellow Olympian from Brazil, Walsh dropped the first round to De Oliveira and then faced disaster in the second when he was somewhat harshly deducted two points, firstly for holding and secondly for pushing.

Though Walsh was adjudged to have won the round, the two-point deduction that would be applied to the final scores all but ended the contest.

Walsh — who had earned a first-round stoppage over United Arab Emirates opponent Husain Alkandari in his maiden bout — was forced to chase a similar outcome in the third round against De Oliveira only to be peppered by the South American’s potent right uppercut.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, whose older sister Michaela is one of five Irish boxers to have already booked their seat on the plane to France, was the only boxer in action for Zaur Antia’s squad in Busto Arsizio on Thursday. It was just his second competitive bout after taking a year-long sabbatical from the sport for personal reasons.

Gráinne Walsh, Kelyn Cassidy, Daina Moorehouse and Jude Gallagher, all of whom won their opening bouts at the E-Work Arena, return to action in their respective last-32 bouts on Friday.

Reaching a semi-final will be enough for any of the four to join Michaela Walsh, Kellie Harrington, Aoife O’Rourke, Dean Clancy and Jack Marley at the Paris Games.