IRELAND’S O’Rourke sisters were denied gold by two Russian fighters at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Niš, Serbia.
Their unanimous decision defeats arrived yesterday, and while Lisa and Aoife would have undoubtedly been expecting the top prize, they were both ultimately forced to settle with silver.
But still, after becoming the only Irish fighters to reach this year’s quarterfinals, the pair will nonetheless return home with plenty to celebrate.
Lisa O’Rourke was up first against Elena Gapeshina who, despite making her professional debut towards the end of 2023, has since extended her menacing surge in the amateur ranks.
Before long, the Russian began to enjoy spells of success on the inside, while her light-middleweight opponent’s explosive attacks at long range made for an absorbing spectacle through six minutes.
Those two rounds, however, went in favour of Gapeshina in the eyes of the judges, and while O’Rourke unleashed a tremendous onslaught in the final round, the damage on the five scorecards had already been done.
A vastly different encounter then unfolded when Aoife, the older and therefore more experienced sister, took on former middleweight rival Anastasia Shamonova.
Despite edging a split decision when they squared off last year, O’Rourke was not given an opportunity to build any momentum this time around.
Most of all, that was because Shamonova would often initiate a headlock, an infringement which Cuban referee Wilfredo Vazquez made no attempt to punish.
Naturally, the chaos of their clash only worked to the Russian’s advantage, with a lack of control from the referee allowing her to cruise through the middleweight final.
Just one of Turky’s four finalists, meanwhile, did enough to claim gold, with welterweight sensation Busenaz Surmeneli building a lead that was far beyond any reasonable doubt.
Her teammates, on the other hand, were not quite so assertive in their approaches, as Busra Isildar, who at the age of 22 has a bright future ahead, ultimately failed her light-heavyweight assignment.
Before that, Morocco’s Widad Bertal, the only African boxer to reach the finals, edged a razor thin split decision in what was perhaps her greatest victory on the international stage.
The Paris Olympian engaged in a fiercely contested clash with Turkey’s Hatice Akbas, who found herself on the wrong end of a 5-2 bout review.
Bout reviews are a new invention where, when a 3-2 conclusion is reached, two extra officials are then drafted in to give a wider reflection of the fight.
In any case, Bertal did not hesitate before leaping in the air once it was announced that she is, in fact, a bantamweight world champion.
A more scrappy affair then saw Serbia crown Andjela Brankovic as its new featherweight world champion, with all five judges scoring the fight comprehensively in her favour.
While Thailand’s Punrawee Ruenros has an argument to say she should have at least pushed her to a split decision, the untidy nature of their encounter ultimately made each round difficult to score.
Another unanimous decision swung in favour of DPR Korea’s Chol Mi Pang, who seized gold in a one-sided flyweight bout against Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu.
Pang looked the sharper of the two, often stepping around her more reckless opponent whenever she lunged into range.
Indeed, it was her more refined footwork that did the business, with Cakiroglu struggling to sustain her moments of success throughout the nine minutes.
Three further unanimous decisions saw Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay and Alua Balkibekova both claim gold, with Russia’s Nune Asatryan, who produced a clinical performance against Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Grafeyeva, also winning by a significantly wide margin.
As for the land of the giants, it was China’s Yilian Zhan – the more spindly figure of the two – who earned herself a 4-1 victory over mountainous Kazakh heavyweight Eldana Talipova.
