Holdaway loses split decision at Games

KRISTINA O’’Hara, of Northern Ireland, earned a 3-2 split verdict over Merthyr Tydfil light-fly Lynsey Holdaway in the Commonwealth Games on Sunday to book her ticket into the semi-finals, where she was to face New Zealand’s Tasmyn Benny today (Wednesday).

A southpaw, based at the Merthyr Ex Club, Lynsey is competitive at 48 and 51kg. She won the Boxam Gold Medal in Spain and has earned multiple Welsh titles.

She featured in a nail-biting battle with O’Hara before losing but gave an impressive performance.

O’Hara worked out her game plan after a tough spar at the Australian Institute of Sport two weeks ago in which she said the Merthyr woman “roughed me up big time”.

The Australian judge gave the West Belfast fighter all three rounds but the US judge felt that Holdaway won all the rounds.

The other judge gave O’Hara a 29-28 win to set up the 22-year-old a semi final clash.

“It was a very, very tough fight,” confirmed O’Hara later.