Ireland’s golden girls top of world
IN an unforgettable and historic half-hour for Irish amateur boxing, Amy Broadhurst and Lisa O’Rourke both became world champions in Istanbul yesterday. The two gold medals doubled the haul for Irish female fighters at world championships. Only Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington had previously stood on top of the podium, while Michael Conlan is the only male boxer to reach the summit. So, the pair will have exalted company in the record books.
Ireland’s latest world champions will each take home $100,000, the prize money for a gold medalist at the championships. They will also now be entitled to the top level of funding from Sport Ireland ahead of the Paris Olympic cycle.
Broadhurst was first in the ring for the light-welterweight final. The 25-year-old southpaw, who had travelled to Connecticut to be a sparring partner for Taylor ahead of her recent mega-fight against Amanda Serrano, had delivered a string of impressive performances at these championships but the Dundalk native saved the best for last.
She rarely looked in trouble against Imane Khelif despite the Algerian’s sizeable height and reach advantage. She controlled most of the bout, scoring well with some brilliant combinations and towards the end of the third and final round, Broadhurst looked comfortable, realising that she had achieved a career goal. All five judges scored the bout for the Irish fighter.
The gold medal has been a long time coming for Broadhurst, who has won European titles at under-age level but had fallen at the quarter-final stage at three previous championships. However, she has boxed brilliantly all the way through these championships.
O’Rourke’s light-middleweight final was the next fight on the card. The 20-year-old has been the surprise package of these championships for Ireland. The Castlerea native, who is a younger sister of Tokyo Olympian Aoife, showed her potential in winning the European Under 22 title earlier this year, but her performances in Istanbul shows how far she has progressed in recentfew months.
She was fighting Alcinda Panguane, who had already made history as Mozambique’s first ever medalist. Her opponent was eight years older and a more seasoned fighter but O’Rourke has taken everything in her stride in Turkey and the world final was no different. O’Rourke used her footwork and athleticism to move around the ring, landing more clean shots to take the first round, 3-2 on the judges’ cards.
The second was more cagey with Panguane edging it.
That set up a tense final round but O’Rourke settled herself early on by landing a powerful right hand and she used that to guide herself through the last couple of minutes and claim the gold medal, winning 4-1 on the judges’ scoring.
It is the first time since the 2016 World Championships that Ireland have won two medals.
Harrington and Taylor won silver and bronze respectively in Astana at that time.
The gold double is also a much-needed good news story for the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) as it has been embroiled in controversy since Bernard Dunne resigned as its high performance director while the body has also been criticised for not sorting out its governance issues.