Sport

Taylor takes another giant step

BOXING : KATIE TAYLOR took another confident step towards the London Olympics yesterday morning as she stopped Saida Khassenova…

Wed May 16 2012 - 01:00

BOXING: KATIE TAYLOR took another confident step towards the London Olympics yesterday morning as she stopped Saida Khassenova to reach the quarter-finals of the AIBA World Women's Championships.

The Bray fighter will have to wait to book her Olympic berth, with a win over Romania’s Mihaela Lacatus almost certain to guarantee her a spot in the big London event.

As with her opening bout at the Olympic Stadium in Qinhuangdao, China, on Monday, Taylor was never behind against her Kazakhstan opponent.

She dominated the first round, taking an 8-3 lead on the scoreboard, and while the second round was closer, Taylor completely took charge in the third, winning it 7-2 to lead 20-8 overall. The referee stepped in to stop the contest in the fourth and final round.

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With three Olympic spots guaranteed for European fighters in the lightweight division, and six Europeans into the quarter-finals, Taylor now knows a win over Lacatus tomorrow is likely to seal her place at the Excel Arena in London.

There remains the possibility that Europeans could fill all four semi-final spots but as top seed Taylor is unlikely to be satisfied with simply making the last four and will instead target a fourth world title in succession.

“She was a very tricky opponent,” Taylor said afterwards. “Really good quality so I had to be wary all the way through. The first minute or so I was just trying to work her out with a lot of feints and a lot of left hands.

“A few of the counts were silly counts, but there’s nothing I can do about that, I’m just delighted to get through.”

Earlier in Qinhuangdao, Ceire Smith’s campaign ended as she was comfortably beaten by Poland’s Karolina Michalczuk.

Michalczuk is a former European champion and her class was obvious against the 19-year-old Cavan woman. The Pole dominated the contest from the start, with Smith receiving two standing counts in the opening round, which ended with Michalczuk leading 12-1. Michalczuk continued to dominate and was leading 23-7 before the referee intervened in the third round, ending any hopes Smith had of qualifying for London.