Kurt Walker turned what began as a disappointing day for Kellie Harrington and Team Ireland into a golden finish for the Irish boxers at the European Games in Minsk.
Walker earned a gold medal in a unanimous decision win over Mykola Butsenko of Ukraine in the Bantamweight final with Harrington having to pull out of her lightweight final against Mira Potkonen with an injured hand.
Harrington as well as Michaela Walsh both took silver medals out of the final weekend as Ireland swept to a six medal finish in one of their most successful international tournaments ever. Regan Buckley (49kg), Grainne Walsh (69kg) and Michael Nevin (75kg) all ended the championships with bronze medals.
The haul exceeds the previous edition of the European Games in Baku four years ago when Katie Taylor and Michael O’Reilly both won gold medals with Brendan Irvine taking silver and Sean McComb bronze.
Walker was landing hard, clean punches from the beginning of the bout and held his composure in the face of some pressure from the Ukrainian southpaw. He took the first round on all the score cards and also won rounds two and three for the unanimous 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 win. He had beaten opponents from Armenia, France and England before his fourth win of the championships delivered gold.
“I actually can’t describe how I’m feeling, it’s absolutely unbelievable,” said Walker afterwards. “To come here at the start and believe I’ll win gold, but for it to actually happen is just on a different level.
“He was very tough, he’s been about. This was his third European final so he’s very experienced and he kept coming and coming, so I’m just glad I was able to fight through it. Two years ago in the European Championships he beat me in the semis 5-0 and it just shows I’ve grown so much as a boxer and a man in the last two years.”
Earlier, team captain Harrington was forced out of her gold medal bout. Due to face Finland’s Mira Potkonen, Ireland’s only reigning world amateur champion sustained a thumb injury in her semifinal defeat of Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson and was deemed unfit to box. The 38-year-old Potkonen, who knocked Katie Taylor out of the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, won gold by walkover. But Harrington remained stoic.
“It’s a great achievement to come out here and get a silver medal, as well as the team picking up six medals,” said Harringtom.”I’m disappointed to not be fighting today in the finals but sometimes you have to look after yourself as number one priority, we have a bigger picture in mind.
“As team captain coming out here with such a strong team, to be honest I didn’t expect anything different. We got what we came out here for and that’s all that can be asked of us and of the team. I’m very proud of the team and absolutely honoured to be team captain of both male and female.”
