Boxing

Five Irish boxers to fight for gold at European Championships

Kellie Harrington, Amy Broadhurst, Christina Desmond, Caitlin Fryers and Aoife O’Rourke all through to finals

Christina Desmond celebrates advancing to the final with the Ireland coaches at the Women's European Boxing Championships in Budva, Montenegro. Photograph: Aleksandar Djorovic/Inpho
Christina Desmond celebrates advancing to the final with the Ireland coaches at the Women's European Boxing Championships in Budva, Montenegro. Photograph: Aleksandar Djorovic/Inpho
Fri Oct 21 2022 - 17:02

Kellie Harrington, Amy Broadhurst, Christina Desmond, Caitlin Fryers and Aoife O’Rourke will all fight for gold medals at the Women’s European Championships in Montenegro on Saturday after coming through their semi-finals on Friday afternoon in Budva.

Light-welterweight World champion Broadhurst and light-middleweight Desmond both recorded unanimous 5-0 results over Croatian and Italian opponents respectively to make the finals. Fighting in the first bout of the evening session, light-flyweight Fryers also claimed a 5-0 points result over Azerbaijan’s Anakhanim Ismayilova to continue her fantastic run in the tournament.

Olympic lightweight champion Kellie Harrington was next up for Ireland and she claimed another unanimous decision against Kosovo’s Donjeta Sadiku. Middlweight Aoife O’Rourke came back from losing the first round of her bout against Sweden’s Love Holgersson to claim yet another unanimous decision from the five judges.

Earlier on in the day both minimumweight Shannon Sweeney and featherweight Michaela Walsh lost their semi-finals, with both returning to Ireland with bronze medals on a record week for Irish women boxers at the Europeans.