Ireland’s Aoife O’Rourke has upgraded her bronze medal to at least silver after winning her semi-final bout at the IBA Women’s World Championships in Serbia.
The 27-year-old took a comprehensive victory over Serbia’s Nikolina Gajic in her middleweight semi-final.
She will fight for gold on Sunday against the winner of this evening’s semi-final between Anastasiia Shamonova of Russia and China’s Lina Wang.
The Roscommon boxer beat Gajic by unanimous decision, her accuracy and stamina proving too much for the 24-year-old Serb.
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O’Rourke, the reigning European champion, eased herself into the contest before coming to life midway through the first round. Landing a number of clean combinations before the bell, the judges scored the opener 3-2 in favour of the number-one seed.
Carrying that momentum into the second, O’Rourke began to devastate the home fighter with a series of stinging left jabs.
With Gajic quickly fading, the referee deducted a point from the Serb for excessive holding before stepping in to give the fourth seed a standing count 30 seconds from the bell.
Utterly in control at this point, O’Rourke could afford to sit back for the third. Gajic had little left in the tank for the final three minutes, drawing a second standing count after O’Rourke nailed her with two quick left jabs to the chin.
By the final bell, the result was clear, O’Rourke taking the win by unanimous decision.
Her sister Lisa will be in action in the light-middleweight semi-final this evening, facing Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan.
