KNOWN for displaying its strength and doggedness when confronted with adversity, the Irish boxing team are doing exactly that here in Niš, Serbia.
An eight-strong squad was swiftly reduced to two at this year’s IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, representing an unusually disastrous start for a nation with such a rich fighting heritage.
But like with anything in life, the Irish have responded in the only way they know how, maintaining their fierce resolve to overcome a series of obstacles.
And now, the widely revered O’Rourke sisters have an opportunity to not only claim gold but, perhaps more importantly, define what already is a truly remarkable comeback story.
Lisa O’Rourke, the younger of the two, utilised her pulsating footwork and seamless upper body movement to secure a unanimous decision win over Morocco’s Saida Lahmidi in yesterday’s quarterfinal bout.
Their light-middleweight affair opened with a closely contested three minutes, seeing both fighters suffer standing counts following a sequence of ferocious exchanges.
O’Rourke, however, soon began to take control, producing a polished performance for the remaining six minutes before claiming a richly deserved victory on points.
But before sailing through to the semifinals, the 22-year-old was compelled to evade several elbows from her opponent, none of which representing enough of an infringement for the referee to deduct a point.
Sure enough, it was only right that her sister did the business as well, as Aoife O’Rourke will indeed join Lisa in the semifinals after outpointing Uzbek middleweight Aziza Zokirova.
Unlike her sister, the two-time Olympian was forced to overcome a much sterner test, edging a closely contested split decision to keep Ireland’s boxing hopes alive.
In fairness, Zokirova gave almost as good as she got, but the relentless pressure and extraordinary work rate of O’Rourke ultimately proved too much for the 20-year-old.
And so it would appear that, finally, the luck of the Irish has now firmly been restored, with the two O’Rourkes both representing strong candidates to make it to this Sunday’s finals.
During yesterday’s afternoon session, though, Ireland-based lightweight Josefien Betist was denied what would have been West African nation Sierra Leone’s first ever medal.
Despite belonging to St.Brigid’s Boxing Club, an all-female gym in Edenderry, Ireland, Betist has leveraged her dual heritage to represent Sierra Leone at international tournaments.
But ultimately, the talented 22-year-old was forced to suffer a unanimous decision defeat to Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina in their compelling quarterfinal bout.
She did, however, give a strong account of herself against the vastly accomplished home fighter, who just so happens to be a 2024 world champion and Paris Olympian.
