Few could have predicted that at the medal stage of the women’s European Championships Ireland would have an unprecedented seven boxers still in the draw and hungry for a medal upgrade from guaranteed bronze to silver or gold.
Montenegro has indeed been kind to the Irish team as Caitlin Fryers, Kellie Harrington and Aoife O’Rourke joined their four Irish team-mates who had qualified for the semi-finals on Tuesday – Shannon Sweeney, Michaela Walsh, Amy Broadhurst and Tina Desmond.
Silver and gold are now real possibilities with a current world champion Broadhurst, Olympic champion Harrington and 2019 European champion O’Rourke all eager to push on towards Saturday’s finals in Budva after a rest day on Thursday. Sweeney, too, looks like the deal.
As experienced as the Irish coaches are, Zaur Antia and John Conlan – veterans of many world and Olympic medal bouts – along with Dmitrij Dmitruk and Eoin Pluck, have never had seven Irish athletes on a major podium, an encouraging sight with the Paris Olympic Games less than two years away.
Many eyes were on Harrington, the lightweight champion from Tokyo last year and they would have seen that she didn’t have such an easy passage. Facing English southpaw and counter puncher Shona Whitwell, Harrington’s quarter-final bout was a chess game of stalking and circling the ring with intermittent explosive exchanges.
Hoping to catch the Irish gold medallist as she moved in and out to score shots, patience and experience from Harrington were the order of the day, the judges narrowly tilting that way in the first round, three siding with Ireland and two cards going with Whitwell.
More willing for contact in the second round, Harrington held her poise in the low scoring match and again it was difficult to tell the pair apart, the greater Irish aggression and a few good scoring shots landing again and impressing three of the five judges as Harrington importantly held the lead.
Trailing into the final round the English fighter was forced to raise the tempo and somehow turn the match. That just played to Harrington and the Olympic champion opened up for her strongest three minutes.
With more exchanges Harrington was offered more scoring opportunity, which she grabbed, coming out much the better in the trading. It was enough for all five judges to award the Tokyo champion the final round and the fight 3-2.
Caitlin Fryers, the light-flyweight from Belfast’s Immaculata club, took off where she left off in a whirlwind of energy and go-forward aggression.
Facing a tall Bulgarian, Zlatislava Chukanova, Fryers set the high tempo from the beginning, easily getting inside the long jab of her opponent, who would have preferred to fight from distance.
The judges saw the first round unfolding barely in Fryer’s favour with three of the cards scoring it to her and two against. But it was the second stanza where Fryers closed the game as she repeatedly worked her way inside the Bulgarian jab with her left landing scoring shots.
The high energy, in your face game was working for the Irish boxer with all five judges marking the round 10-9 in her favour, leaving Chukanova with the highly unlikely possibility of turning the bout around in the third round.
Chukanova did win it, but it wasn’t enough, Fryers going through to the semi-final with a 3-2 points win.
It was Castlerea’s Aoife O’Rourke who brought the Irish medal haul to seven. The last of the Irish into the ring on Wednesday, the 2019 European Championship and sister of world champion Lisa started up tempo and combative against the strong Turkish middleweight Isildar Busra.
O’Rourke’s speed and aggressive pose quickly told and early in the round she landed a straight left and left hook, with her busy jab keeping Busra overworked. More active and landing the accurate shots, it was the perfect start with all five judges awarding the Irish fighter the round.
While Busra was not afraid of exchanging, it was O’Rourke building the better tally, occasionally going for the body to keep her nose just in front, with three of the five cards in her favour at the end of the second round.
By then Turkey had a lot to do to change the outcome and although Busra was strong, her speed couldn’t match the Irish middleweight. Better from a distance, O’Rourke remained active and was again able to dominate the ring and her opponent.
For that she was rewarded with a bronze medal and place in Friday’s semi-finals with four of the five judges giving her the round and the match 4-1.
A brave effort from Greystones’ Kaci Rock against a classy German in the welterweight quarter-final was not enough to allow her to advance to the semi-finals. Rock came forward for most of the bout but against a tall, rangy opponent struggled to get beyond the long levers, Stefanie von Berge winning by unanimous decision.
