Potkonen Go For Taylor- Champ starts her defence against Fin
Olympic champion Katie Taylor will open her title defence against Finland’s Mira Potkonen in her first fight at the Rio Olympics.
Potkonen,who has lost five times to Taylor in five meetings,beat Adriana Araujo of Brazil on a split decision today to set up the quarter-final with the Bray lightweight.
Both women go head-to-head for at least bronze at 3pm (Irish time) on Monday.
Taylor received a bye into the last-eight as the No. 1 seed.
China’s Junhua Yin meets Azerbaijan’s Yana Alexseevna in the corresponding quarter-final Monday after seeing off Morocco’s Hasnaa Lachgar this afternoon.
Meanwhile,Steven Donnelly and Brendan Irvine will be in action tomorrow.
Donnelly,who has recorded two wins so far, faces Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii in the quarter-finals for at least bronze.
*Columbia’s Herney Martinez, who beat Spain’s Samuel Carmona who beat Paddy Barnes in Rio, caused one of the shocks of the tournament after eliminating Cuba’s gold medal favourite Joahyns Argilagos in today’s light-fly semi-final.
Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov,who was beaten into 1st place in the WSB qualifiers by Barnes, outpointed Nico Hernandez of the USA in the corresponding 49kg semi-final.*
Irish Draw Rio Olympics
August 7th (last 32)
60kg David Oliver Joyce (Ireland) beat Andrique Allisop (Seychelles) 3-0
69kg Steven Donnelly (Ireland) beat Zahir Kedache (Algeria) 3-0
August 8th (last 16)
49kg Paddy Barnes (Ireland) lost to Samuel Carmona (Spain) 1-2
August 9th (last 16)
60kg David Oliver Joyce (Ireland) lost to Albert Selimov (Azerbaijan) 0-3
August 10th (last 16)
81kg Joe Ward (Ireland) lost to Carlos Andreas Mina (Ecuador) 1-2
August 11th (last 16)
69kg Steven Donnelly (Ireland) beat Tuvshinbat Byamba (Mongolia) 2-1
August 12th (last 16)
75kg Michael O’Reilly (Ireland) lost to Uziel Rodriquez (Mexico) W/O
August 13th (last 32)
52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) v Shakhobidin Zoirov (Uzbekistan)
Q/Final
69kg Steven Donnelly (Ireland) v Mohammed Rabii (Morocco)
August 14th (last 16)
56kg Michael Conlan (Ireland) v Aram Avagyan (Armenia)
August 15th (Q/Final)
60kg Katie Taylor (Ireland) v Mira Potkonen (Finland)
Irish squad
Women
60kg (Lightweight) – Katie Taylor (Bray)
Men
49kg (Light-flyweight) – Paddy Barnes (Holy Family)
52kg (Flyweight) – Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s)
56kg (Bantamweight) – Michael Conlan (Clonard)
60kg (Lightweight) – David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s Athy & AIBA Pro Boxing)
69kg (Welterweight) – Steven Donnelly (All Saints)
75kg (Middleweight) – Michael O’Reilly (Portlaoise)
WWW.IR81kg (Light-heavyweight) – Joe Ward (Moate & AIBA Pro Boxing)
Team Manager: Joe Hennigan
Coaches: Zaur Antia, Eddie Bolger, John Conlan
Physio: Julianne Ryan
Sport Psychologist: Gerry Hussey
Doctor: Jim Clover
