Aoife O’Rourke competed in the Olympic Games in Paris and Tokyo. Photo: Sportsfile
Aoife O’Rourke will box for a World medal next week after a resounding unanimous decision victory in the last 16 in Liverpool.
After a day of defeats, the eldest O’Rourke sister went into her 75kg bout razor focused against her Czech opponent Monika Langerova and the two-time Olympian forced two standing eight counts on her way to victory.
O’Rourke will box Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad in her quarter-final bout. Hofstad is a fellow Paris Olympian and the only boxer, male or female, this year to win gold at all World Boxing Cups.
That bout takes place in Wednesday’s evening session.
Meanwhile, Daina Moorehouse bowed out of the World Boxing Championships on the narrowest of margins in Liverpool, on a tough day for Team Ireland.
Moorehouse contested her last-32 bout against fellow Paris Olympian, Laura Fuentes Fernandez of Spain, and lost a 3-2 split decision in a high-tempo affair in the 51kg division.
Matthew McCole also lost on his World Championship debut, showing massive heart and promise in a split-decision lost to opponent Ronald Chavez Jr of the Philippines in the 70kg division.
It wasn’t to be for debutant Zara Breslin as she came up short against Paris Olympian, Turkey’s Gizem Ozer, in her 60kg, last-32 contest.