Four Irish boxers will fight for gold medals on Wednesday at the Under-17 European Boxing Championships in Kienbaum, Germany.
Monday’s semi-finals also saw six boxers take home bronze medals, leaving Ireland with ten medals; good enough for joint-third in total medals alongside England, and behind Turkey and Ukraine.
Team co-captain Cassie Henderson from Antrim won at least a silver medal after defeating Italy’s Denise Marcellino by unanimous decision in the women’s 70kg semi-finals.
A solid first round performance was punctuated by a couple of heavy right hands, leaving Henderson up on all the scorecards.
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The contest was fairly even, but Henderson kept on top throughout the final two rounds, to secure a unanimous decision, with three judges scoring every round to the Phoenix ABC fighter.
She will face Vladyslava Nalyvaiko in the final on Wednesday, after the Ukrainian came from behind to produce an unlikely 3:2 split decision.
Wexford’s Sean Kelly advanced to the final of the 52kg division with a 5-0 victory over Ukraine’s Oleksii Kolbaia.
The slick southpaw withstood a tough first round and a cut to his eye to take home the unanimous decision, scoring often with his left hand.
He will face Yigit Keski of Turkey, who put on a fine display in his own unanimous victory in the semi-final.
The Model County will be represented twice in Wednesday’s finals as Wexford CBS’s Kalib Walshe took a 5-0 victory over Maxim Kovalski of Germany.
Walshe had a quick start, scoring the cleaner shots on the home fighter and he was equally good boxing off the back foot when he had taken a clear lead.
Winning the final two rounds on all the judges’ scorecards, Walshe will contest the men’s 57kg final against Italy’s Daniel Fabi.
Crumlin BC’s Kristian Jubani was the final Irish boxer to progress to the finals, with a stylish unanimous decision win over Montenegro’s Nikola Raicevic in the 50kg division.
Fighting with a hands-down style, Jubani got off to a flying start, forcing the referee to issue his opponent two standing counts in the first round.
The referee had to issue another standing count in the second round, and, with a healthy lead built up, the Irish southpaw produced some wonderful footwork and head movement to win the tie comfortably.
Jubani will take on Romania’s Denis Aurel Alexandrescu in his final on Wednesday, leaving Ireland with the chance to take four gold medals home.
Meanwhile, William Heaphy (80+kg) of Cork and Paige Nickels (54kg) of Antrim both suffered split decision losses in their semis to take home bronze medals.
Fellow Antrim fighter Lucie Prentice (50kg) also won bronze, along with Tipperary’s Isabelle Hawkins (75kg), and Westmeath duo Pat Stokes (46kg) and Jason Donohue (60kg), as they all lost out by unanimous decision in their semi-finals.
