No Olympic debut delight for Grainne Walsh
Grainne Walsh suffered a frustrating and heartbreaking defeat on her Olympic debut.
Pitted against Anna Hamori, the fighter who battled hard to reach the greatest stage of all, was faced with a tough start, but there was a real belief she could get a big win and progress past the Round of 32.
It wasn’t to be as the Hungarian with a European Games survived a point deduction to secure a split decision win.
The result means Ireland are yet to get off the mark and are 0-3 so far in the Paris Games.
The focus now turns to Dublin heavyweight Jack Marley who will look to end the run of defeats when he trades leather later tonight.
Hamori looked to let her hands go early but was punished for her aggression by the St Mary’s fighter, with Walsh picking clean shots in between her opponent’s flurries.
The hungry-for-work Hungarian kept up the aggressive approach and with Walsh not one to shy away from a fight it led to an entertaining battle.
Walsh looked to be landing the bigger shots but Hamori had her successes, indeed according to three of the five scoring judges her work was the better of two.
Both fighters looked to find a range that allowed them to pick better shots in the second – and the ploy initially suited Walsh, who landed a big right hand and some eye-catching combinations.
The blue-corner fighter responded well before a point deduction seemed to hand Walsh the advantage, although the Irish fighter went into the last down on three cards.
In the ascendancy and not needing to force proceedings suited the long-levered European Games medal winner and she looked to keep in long across the final three minutes. In true Walsh fashion, she threw all she had it to try and turn things around. She worked the body well and applied pressure but again the cleaner work came from a now elusive Hamori.
The length of time it took to calculate the score gave the Irish in the venue hope, but it was false hope as a delighted Hamori progressed.
