IRELAND GUARANTEED SIX BRONZE AT EUROPEAN YOUTHS

Ireland will be taking home at least six bronze medals for the European Youth Championships in Italy.

Irish female captain Lauren Kelly, Evelyn Igharo, Daina Moorehouse, Jude Gallagher and Dearbhla Rooney joined Dean Clancy in the last-four.

The six are assured podium finishes and will be back in action in Tuesday’s semi-finals.

Brandon McCarthy was desperately unlucky not to join his Irish team-mates in the business end of the tournament.

The St Michael’s Athy man dominated his quarter-final but was adjudged to have lost on a 3-2 split to Albania’s Muhamet Qamili.

The Israeli judge gave McCarthy one 10-8 round in a 30-26 win and he also earned a 30-27 victory on another card.

Gallagher beat Armenia’s Yeghikyan and Moorehouse and Rooney saw off Spain’s Marta Lopez and Croatia’s Nikolina Qamili, while Igharo stopped Antia Zilix, also of Croatia, in the first round.

Kelly, the last Irish boxer in action today, held her composure and stuck to her boxing to beat Turkey’s Sena Erdogan and claim her third European medal.