Disappointment for women’s boxing team in Olympic qualifiers

There was disappointment for the women's team at the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Turkey, when Cavan's Ceire Smith and Christina Desmond, who was so impressive in her previous bout when she defeated the Dutch number one Nouchka Fontijan, went out of the competition. Katie Taylor advanced.

Both fighters put in big performances but could not convince the judges to send them through to the quarterfinals. Smith lost to Ukranian Tetyna Kob 1-2 with middleweight Desmond falling 0-3 to Hungary’s Petra Scatmari.

Katie Taylor sailed through on a unanimous decision against Denmark’s Yvonne Rasmussen but will now face one of her toughest opponents in Yana Alexeevna from Azerbaijan. It was Alexseevna who pushed Taylor to a countback decision in last year’s European Games in Baku.

It was the closest the European, World and Olympic gold medallist has come to a decision going against her since her Olympic final win in London 2012 against Sofya Ochigava.

The two are fighting to secure a place in the Olympic Games with both finalists in the women’s draw advancing to Rio draw.

The men were more successful with two boxers advancing.

David Oliver Joyce made it through to the semifinals with a convincing 3-0 win over Vazgen Sufaryants in the lightweight division with Brendan Irvine following him in a fraught bout against Ellie Konki from France.

Flyweight Irvine won the first round on a majority 2-1 but the second round went with the French boxer, the judges again split. But a stronger third round from the European Games silver medallist was enough to pull him through on a split decision.

Darren O’Neil, however, saw his chance evaporate after a close bout with Abdulkadir Abdullayev. The two were level 19-19 going into the third round with O’Neil bowing out on a split decision, two of the judges siding with the Azeri heavyweight.

Quarter Finals

51kg C Smith (Ireland) lost to T Kob (Ukraine) 1-2

52kg B Irvine (Ireland) beat E Konki (France) 2-1

60kg K Taylor (Ireland) beat Y Rasmussen (Denmark) 3-0

60kg D Oliver Joyce (Ireland) beat V Sufaryants (Belarus) 3-0

75kg C Desmond (Ireland) lost to P Scatmari (Hungary) 0-3

91kg D O’Neill (Ireland) lost to A Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) 1-2