Gallant Aoibhe Carabine has to settle for European silver

Aoibhe Carabine will have to settle for silver after suffering final defeat in Croatia this evening.

The Geesala BC fighter couldn’t make it a female final clean sweep for Ireland as she lost to Ukrainian Karolina Makhno in the middleweight decider on the same day Lisa O’Rourke and Niamh Fay claimed gold.

Carabine gave a good account of herself against the big for the weight Ukrainian but couldn’t secure the win.

Regardless of today’s result, it was still a very successful tournament for the emerging talent who is now a European Junior gold medal winner and a European Under-22 silver medal winner.

Carabine initially had to find her way past her much taller opponent’s long jab but soon began to time it landed some clean right hands. Those shots made her foe a little more tentative and allowed her to get inside on occasion. However, the Ukrainian was having success of her own took the round 3-2 on the cards.

The Mayo fighter pushed her opponent back early in the second but to her credit, Makhno responded in kind and an all-action fight broke out with the bigger and stronger Makhno looking the more effective. Carabine did land the shot of the round in the final 10 seconds but all five judges gave the stanza to her opponent.

Carabine showed some quality aggressive counter-punching in the final session but couldn’t produce the massive round she would have needed to turn the tide and grab gold.