Michaela Walsh and Shannon Sweeney have both secured bronze medals for team Ireland at the European Boxing Championships on Tuesday.
Nine Irish athletes, including Olympic champion Kellie Harrington and World gold medalist Amy Broadhurst, are fighting for bronze medals over the next two days.
It's all shaping up to be a week of historic proportions for the team, and Shannon Sweeney kicked off the medal charge in style on Tuesday afternoon. The Mayo woman secured Ireland's first medal of the tournament with an impressive victory over Slovakia’s Nicole Durikova.
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The St Anne's BC star controlled the action from start to finish and pummelled her opponent for two rounds. Sweeney forced three standing counts for her opponent in the space of a couple of rounds. After the third of these counts, the referee called off the bout and awarded the win to the Irishwoman.
Commonwealth champion Michaela Walsh continued the medal rush as she cruised to victory over her Romanian opponent Claudia Nechita. The 29-year-old from Belfast got her opponent's timing down to a tee early doors and was quicker to the punch throughout. After three comfortable rounds, all five judges awarded Walsh the win.
It wasn't an entirely successful opening session for the Irish however as Carly McNaul suffered defeat in her quarter-final matchup with the slick Italian Olena Savchuk.
Later on this evening Amy Broadhurst and Christina Desmond will look to guarantee two more bronze medals for Ireland. Broadhurst boxes Serbia’s Milena Matovic in the third bout of tonight's evening session, while Desmond battles with Hanna Ingrid Malena Hede of Sweden seven bouts later.
Aoife O’Rourke, Kellie Harrington, Kaci Rock, and Caitlin Fryers are all in quarter-final action on Wednesday. Walsh and Sweeney will continue their gold medal journeys in the next couple of days.
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