Boxing:Ray Moylette and Joe Ward both came through their respective semi-finals today to guarantee they come away with at least silver medals from the European Championships in Ankara, Turkey.
Ward was second into the ring and secured an impressive win over Hungary's Imre Szello in their light heavyweight bout. The opening exchanges were understandably tame as Ward kept up his guard and took few chances.
As the fight progressed, so too did the Irish boxer's confidence. By the final round Ward was warned by the referee for goading his opponent, who never looked to trouble the Moate fighter.
"Joe was in against a vastly experienced opponent and he made him look ordinary," said Irish head coach Billy Walsh. "It was a fantastic performance from someone of such tender years. Joe has a another big day ahead of him but his confidence will be very high after this win."
Ward will now take on either Croatia's Hrvoje Sep or Russia's Nikita Ivanov in the decider.
Earlier in the day Moylette dispatched Azerbaijan Hajiliyev Heybatulla in their light-welterweight semi-final and is now just three rounds away from the biggest prize of his fledgling career.
Up against the all-action Heybatulla, Moylette plotted his way around the ring expertly in the opening stages, ducking behind his guard when necessary and picking up vital points on the counter. However, Heybatulla was scoring with shots of his own and the round finished with both fighters level on points (4-4).
Nothing could separate either man in the second round either (9-9), with Moylette again boxing from behind a rock solid defence, but he opened up in the third and final round to edge the contest by a narrow two point margin on the judges’ scorecards (18-16).
“He is fantastic, he was so relaxed,” enthused Walsh afterwards. “It was outstanding, it will rank up there with any Irish perfomarnces that we’ve had down the years.”
Moylette will met England’s Commonwealth Games champion Thomas Stalker in the decider after he received a walkover over Italy's Vincenzo Mangiacapre, who was injured.
Stalker had to go through the motions of getting kitted up and heading to the ring where he was declared the winner by the referee with scheduled opponent Mangiacapre failing to show.
Both finals take place tomorrow.