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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Who is Aidan Walsh? Meet Ireland's newest Olympic medallist

Aidan Walsh secured Ireland's third medal of the Tokyo Olympics in the early hours of Friday morning.

The 24-year-old defeated Merven Clair of Mauritius in the welterweight quarter-finals at the Kokugikan Arena and will now face GB's Pat McCormack in the semi-final on Sunday.

Here's everything you need to know about the welterweight:

Where is he from?

Walsh hails from Belfast and trains at Monkstown Boxing Club in Newtownabbey.

How did he win the quarter-final?

Walsh defeated Clair via split decision on Friday.

He was deservedly ahead with all the judges after the first round as both boxers tried to pick off punches from distance.

But the second was closer as Clair had to come forward with some success, although Walsh still took it 3-2 on the judges' cards.

Predictably, the third round was a case of Walsh staying out of trouble as Clair went for broke and he managed to do so.

Walsh blessed himself continuously as the pair awaited the result and then leapt high in the air as he was awarded a 4-1 victory.

What did he say after the fight?

Speaking to RTE, Walsh said: "The amount of training I've put in and the amount of sacrifices... my coaches, my club coaches, my family and girlfriend, everybody has given me so much support and I'm just so grateful.

"I just do what the coaches tell me. They come up with a game plan and you just do it, just listen. Boxers say it's like a computer game, they're playing a computer game, I'm just the operator in it and doing my best to do what they're telling me to do.

"I'm happy with my performance but I want to progress on. You want to be the best and I feel like I'm improving all the time."

What about his next opponent?

Pat McCormack looked impressive in beating his Uzbek opponent in his quarter-final, but left the ring with a deep cut above the eye.

McCormack, who hails from Sunderland, beat Walsh in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals, so Walsh will be eyeing revenge on the biggest stage of all against the 26-year-old.

Previous achievements

Walsh won gold fighting at light welterweight at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games.

He also won silver at welterweight at the 2018 Commonwealth games.

He's not the only boxer in his family

His sister Michaela is also an amateur boxer and part of Team Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics. She lost to Italy's Irma Testa earlier in the week.

Paying tribute to his sister after Friday's win, Aidan said: "I would do anything for her and she would do anything for me.

"If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be like her because I would have stopped boxing. When I was younger, running about the streets, she was the one who told 'Wind your neck in' and saw the talent I had."

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