Michaela Walsh will return from the European Boxing Championships in Bulgaria with a bronze medal after losing her featherweight semi-final on Thursday, while Lisa O’Rourke banked gold for Team Ireland.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Belfast fighter lost on a 4-1 split decision by Kazakhstan-born Hungarian Vladislava Kukhta [29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 28-29] after a technical bout of contrasting styles.<\/p>\n
Walsh has three podium finishes this year following silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and Strandja Tournament.<\/p>\n
“It was very cagey and the tactics were to try and lead her on [into counters] but she is a great operator and it was always just how that first round was going to go as it would dictate the fight,” Walsh told Boxing Ireland.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud of my performance and fought to the very end.<\/p>\n
“2023 was the last time I was on an international podium [until this year]. I was going through a bit of a stale period, but never gave up, believed in myself and knew I could produce big performances.<\/p>\n
“This isn’t over, it’s just a stepping stone, so onto next year for the Olympic qualifier.”<\/p>\n
Both took a while to settle and a quiet opener was shaded by southpaw Vladislava on three of the five cards.<\/p>\n
The World Boxing Cup Brazil finalist found a home for some straight lefts, while Walsh enjoyed her own moments when quickening the feet to advance and land on the inside.<\/p>\n
The pace increased in the second as they began to let their hands go, Vladislava opting for volume to Walsh’s more measured approach to draw the lead and counter.<\/p>\n
Accumulation would catch the eye as the Hungarian’s work was rewarded on all five cards to help her into a healthy lead on three cards with two even.<\/p>\n
Walsh needed a big final round and opened well with a right and while Vladislava was not content to coast home as she enjoyed further success with the left, the Belfast woman boxed superbly with consistent shots finding the target.<\/p>\n
However, it was not enough in the end as her tournament came to an end. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michaela Walsh will return from the European Boxing Championships in Bulgaria with a bronze medal after losing her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-904720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}