Bantamweight John Joe Nevin and middleweight Jason Quigley both won gold medals at the European Championships in a day of mixed fortune for the Irish boxing team.
Nevin beat south paw Nikola Butsenko after light flyweight Paddy Barnes was forced to withdraw and Michael Conlon lost out on gold to Wales Andrew Selby with Quigley, in the final Irish bout of the day, beating Romania's Bogdan Juratoni.
In the end Ireland came away from Minsk with two gold and two silver medals, their best showing ever. Nevin was once again untouchable in the bantamweight final hitting his Ukraine opponent seemingly at will, Butsenko labouring to lay a glove on the Irishman.
The win gives the Mullingar boxer a cherished European gold to add to his World bronze medals and Olympic silver, making him the most decorated boxer of his era.
Nevin was comfortable throughout the three rounds with Butsenko needing to stop the fight in the third round to win. Typically elusive and flicking out shots Nevin was comfortable in wining his first European final on a unanimous decision 30-27, 29-28, 29-28.
Quigley had a storming start to his middleweight contest and although the Finn Valley boxer visibly tired in the closing stages of the third round he did enough in the early stages to earn him the win.
Juratoni, with his high defence, kept coming forward but Quigley with a greater variety of shots and better combinations scored heavily in the opening two rounds, all three judges giving him the first round.
Quigley kept his distance and although Juratoni came back in the third the Irishman held to add the European senior belt to his Youth and Under 23 titles.
Barnes withdrew from his light flyweight final against Russia's David Ayrapetyan due to a fractured nose. The Belfast scrapper suffered the injury in his first fight of the week with head coach Billy Walsh deciding to withdraw the Belfast man on Friday night. "The safety of our boxers is more important than gold medals," said Walsh.
Barnes' nose was bleeding heavily in his semi-final victory over Salman Alizada of Azerbaijan which required attention from the ringside doctor. A gold medal winner at the 2010 European Championships, Barnes tweeted: "Out of the final today! Couldn't bluff the doctors today again, had to get an X-ray and nose is broke! Broke it in my 1st fight!"
Michael Conlan joined Barnes with a silver medal when he lost on a split decision to Wales' Andrew Selby. The Belfast flyweight was extremely disappointed but Selby was cute and landed well on the talented Belfast fighter to win 28-29 29-28 30-27 alley.
A technical fight Selby, a World Championship silver medallist from 2011 and European Champion from 2011, became the first British fighter to retain the European amateur title.
