Ireland’s Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke have both upgraded their bronze medals to at least silver after winning their semi-final bouts at the IBA Women’s World Championships in Serbia.
The Roscommon sisters will fight for gold in their respective divisions on Sunday.
In Friday’s early session, 27-year-old Aoife took a comprehensive victory over Serbia’s Nikolina Gajic in her middleweight semi-final.
O’Rourke, the reigning European champion, eased herself into the contest before coming to life midway through the first round. Landing a number of clean combinations before the bell, the judges scored the opener 3-2 in favour of the number-one seed.
Carrying that momentum into the second, O’Rourke began to devastate the home fighter with a series of stinging left jabs.
With Gajic quickly fading, the referee deducted a point from the Serb for excessive holding before stepping in to give the fourth seed a standing count 30 seconds from the bell.
Utterly in control at this point, O’Rourke could afford to sit back for the third. Gajic had little left in the tank for the final three minutes, drawing a second standing count after O’Rourke nailed her with two quick left jabs to the chin.
By the final bell, the result was clear, O’Rourke taking the win by unanimous decision.
In the evening session, younger sister Lisa fought back from a difficult opening round to win on a split decision against Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan in the light-middleweight division.
The 24-year-old Irish champion struggled at the start, Bogdanova reading her shots well and responding with effective counter punches to see her take the round in the eyes of all five judges.
Though messy in parts − both boxers were warned by the referee for flailing − O’Rourke capitalised when Bogdanova drew her in close, landing some huge right-handers to force the Kazakhstan boxer to take a backwards step.
Having won the second on a 3-2 split, O’Rourke was back in business, opening the final round with a series of successful left jabs.
In one of their many tangles, Bogdanova caught O’Rourke with a solid left hand, but just as she had done in the second, the Roscommon woman landed the standout blow of the round just before the bell.
The final round also ended in a second split decision, sending the result to bout review, the outcome deeming O’Rourke to be the 4-3 winner.
On Sunday, Lisa O’Rourke will face Anastasia Shamonova (Russia) for the light-middleweight final before Aoife enters the ring against Elena Gapeshina (Russia) in the middleweight final.
