Wins for O’Rourke sisters and Fay in Standja

It was a case of three out of four ain’t bad for Ireland in Bulgaria today.

Team Ireland recorded three wins from four bouts on Day Two of the 75th Strandja Memorial Tournament.

54kg Niamh Fay opened Ireland’s account with a win over a Paris-qualified opponent.

The Ballyboughal fighter defeated India’s Preeti Preeti via a 3-2 split decision with the judges scoring the bout 28:29; 28:29; 30:27; 28:29; 30:27 in the young Dubs favour.

Fay now boxes her quarter-final on Thursday, against Serbia’s Sara Cirkovic.

Featherweight Michaela Walsh suffered a rare international defeat in Ireland’s next contest losing to Tajikistan’s Mijgona Samadova in another close and testy bout. The 4-1 decision went the Tajikistani boxer’s way courtesy of a 29:28; 29:28; 29:28; 29:28; 28:29 card.

Walsh’s fellow Olympic-qualified fighter Aoife O’Rourke was another to get victory over Bernard Dunne’s India. The Roscommon 75kg fighter impressively defeated Lovlina Borgohain – a world champion who has also qualified for Paris. Points were deducted from Borgohain in rounds 1 and 2, and she was disqualified on deduction of a 3rd point in the 3rd round. O’Rourke now renew rivalries with Poland’s Elzbieta Wojcik in Thursday’s quater final.

Aoife O’Rourke’s younger sister, Lisa O’Rourke stepped between the ropes for the first time since winning gold at Leszek Drogosz in Poland – against Thailand’s Janjaema Suwannapheng.

This was another close contest, with Ireland 66kg representative claiming the win on a 3-2 split. Judges scored the bout 29:28; 30:27; 28:29; 29:28; 28:29. Lisa’s quarter final, against Poland’s Aneta Rygielska, will be boxed on Thursday.

261 boxers from 28 federations are contesting the tournament, hosted in Sofia by the Bulgarian Boxing Federation. Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, France, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tukey, Turkey and Uzbekistan have all fielded teams.

Team

50kg Shannon Sweeney, St. Anne’s BC, Mayo*

54kg Niamh Fay, Phoenix of Ballyboughal BC, Dublin

57kg Michaela Walsh, Holy Family GG, Belfast

66kg Lisa O’Rourke, Castlerea BC, Roscommon

75kg Aoife O’Rourke, Castlerea BC, Roscommon

51kg Rickey Nesbitt, Holy Family BC, Drogheda

57kg Adam Hession, Monivea BC, Galway

63.5kg Dean Clancy, Sean McDermott BC, Leitrim

71kg Eugene McKeever, Holy Family, Drogheda

92kg Jack Marley, Monkstown BC, Dublin

92+kg Martin McDonagh, Crumlin, Dublin.

Draws are available here