Katie Taylor and Michael O’Reilly have added to Ireland’s medals tally at the European Games in Baku, doubling the Irish tally from two to four – and they’re currently all bronzes.
Portlaoise middleweight O’Reilly was awarded every round by every judge in a comprehensive victory over Aljaz Venko of Slovenia.
O’Reilly was given a 30-27 margin by all three judges, and next fights Russia’s Maxim Koptyakov in Friday’s semi-final.
Katie Taylor and Michael O’Reilly have added to Ireland’s medals tally at the European Games in Baku, doubling the Irish tally from two to four – and they’re currently all bronzes.
Portlaoise middleweight O’Reilly was awarded every round by every judge in a comprehensive victory over Aljaz Venko of Slovenia.
O’Reilly was given a 30-27 margin by all three judges, and next fights Russia’s Maxim Koptyakov in Friday’s semi-final.
Earlier, Taylor beat Swede Ida Lundblad on a unanimous points decision in the womens lightweight quarter-finals.
The Olympic champion took the honours 40-34 40-36 40-36, and next fights top Azeri Yana Alekseeva in the semi-finals on Friday.
Kilkenny heavyweight Darren O’Neill fights Ukrainian Gevorg Manukian for a bronze medal at 10am.
Of the six quarter-finals with Irish interest so far, there have been just two victories, and one of those already with a medal, Brendan Irvine, looks to upgrade to at least a silver in this afternoon’s light-flyweight semi-final against Dmytro Zamotavev of Ukraine.
Of the seven Irish swimmers in action in the pool this morning, all were eliminated, but James Brown in the 200m individual medley and Mona McSharry did score top-20 performances that have them as standby alternates for their semi-finals.
After losing their 3×3 basketball opener to Slovenia 14-10 last night, Ireland’s women need at least one win today to progress. They play Spain and Slovakia.
Badminton top seed Scott Evans beat Hungarian Gergely Krausz 21-16 21-7, while tonight Chloe Magee plays Lianne Tan of Belgium.
Sam and Josh Magee in the men’s doubles take on Florian and Kopriva of the Czech Republic, and in the women’s doubles, Sara Boyle and Rachel Darragh lost in straight sets 21-9 21-9 to Ekaterina Bolotova and Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia.