World Boxing Championships: Aoife O’Rourke and Patsy Joyce secure medals

Ireland boxers Aoife O’Rourke and Patsy Joyce have secured medals at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool.

O’Rourke defeated Norway’s Sunniva Hofstand 4-1 on the judges’ cards in her 75kg quarter-final.

The Paris Olympian will face Chengyu Yang of China in her semi-final on Saturday.

“It’s just about taking it one fight at a time,” O’Rourke told World Boxing.

“I am just grateful to have gotten that medal and we’ll push on in the next one and see what we can do.”

Joyce joined O’Rourke as he secured a men’s 55kg medal with a 3-2 split decision win over Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Uzbekistan.

Westmeath teenager Joyce will take on Spanish fighter Rafael Serrano Lozano in his semi-final on Saturday.

“I was the underdog. I was the underdog yesterday as well (in his last-16 win over Bulgaria’s Javier Ibanez Diaz), but age is only a number,” he told World Boxing.

“I came here, 19 years of age, the youngest one on the team, and I’m smashing them up.”