Team Ireland’s Grainne Walsh will come home from the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool with a bronze medal, after a great campaign.
She contested her 65kg semi-final this evening against Kazakhstan’s Aida Abikeyeva. This was a high-tempo, close quarters bout and the 5-0 decision went to Abikeyeva. Judges scored the bout: 28:29, 28:29, 28:29, 28:29, 27: 30, showing the hair’s breadth margin between these two athletes. Abikeyeva is a 2025 World Boxing Cup champion, the 2024 Asian champion, and an IBA World champion.
Speaking to RTE Sport’s Siobhan Madigan after leaving the ring, Grainne says “Every fight at this tournament has been so tough…In this competition in general, there’s no easy draw. I try not to look too far ahead – actually, not at all. I just look at the person in front of me and keep them coming after that. A difficult, cagey fight and I just never found my rhythm I suppose. I sparred her two weeks ago in Sheffield. I felt we had a great game plan. I just couldn’t execute it to the best of my ability” And, she adds “I am extremely proud of myself for getting four fights in one week. I had two fights this year, up to now. I am proud of how far I’ve come….This is my first time at medal stages of a World Championships. A long time since I’ve been on a podium in general. I’m just so grateful to be here. I’ve had so many ups and downs, as everybody in this tournament does.
Grainne continues “No athlete has an easy journey to the top. I feel like the things I’ve learned over the last couple of years I couldn’t learn in 10 lifetimes, and the people I’ve shared it with. That’s what its all about, the people that you meet along the way. Myself and my coach Damian had a great chat there as he was wrapping my hands (about that)….I’m just finding my feet now. I’ve announced myself on the World scene.”
Grainne carved her path to the semi-finals with a resounding Last 32 stage win over Jessica Triebelova of Slovakia, where she was dominant, coming away with a 5-0 win. She boxed a masterful contest at the Last 16 stage against Mariana Soto Torres of Spain, and a second unanimous decision. The Offaly woman claimed her bronze medal by defeating the Paris Olympics silver medalist China’s Yang Liu 3-2.
540 boxers from 66 federations are contesting these champions, the first in which men and women compete for World gold together. The competition is the biggest ever Olympic-style boxing event held in the UK, and includes 17 medalists from Paris 2024 and more than 30 boxers that competed at the most recent Olympic Games. It features action at 10 weight classes for men and women with 80 medals being handed out, including 20 golds.
Semi-Finals, Day Two
Two more Team Ireland boxers will vie to up-grade their medals, with their semi finals taking place on Saturday.
Double Olympian and four time continental champion Aoife O’Rourke contests to step-up the 75kg podium against China’s Chengyu Yang – That’s Bout 6, and will take place at around 1.30pm. The Castlerea Co. Roscommon woman got to the semi finals with a 5-0 win over Czech Republic’s Monika Langerova, and a 4-1 win over fellow Olympian, Sunniva Hofstad of Norway. Hofstad is the only boxer this year, male or female, to have won gold at all World Boxing Cups.
Westmeath’s Patsy Joyce, boxing at 55kg, will take on Spain’s Rafael Serrano Lozano, a Paris Olympian. Patsy is one of the youngest members of Team Ireland at just 19 years of age, and has parried & side-stepped his way to the semi finals with three wins. The first, over Jaeyong Shin of Korea, the second over Cuban-born Bulgarian Olympian and World and European medalist, Javier Ibanez Diaz, and the third over Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov – an Asian champion and World Boxing Cup medalist. The latter two of Patsy’s opponents are more than a decade his senior. Patsy steps between the ropes in Bout 10, at approximately 2.30pm.
Speaking after winning his quarter final, and medaling, Patsy said “I was the underdog. I was the underdog yesterday as well – but age is only a number. I came here, 19 years of age, the youngest one on the team, and I’m smashing them up.”
These championships are the first since 2015 in which Ireland has won 3 world medals at a single tournament. Patsy Joyce is also the first male boxer to medal at world level since his cousin, Rio Olympian Joe Ward, won silver in Hamburg in 2017.
Watch
World Boxing has partnered with Eurovision Sport to broadcast the Championship. Coverage, available HERE and on the RTE Player, HERE
Team Ireland
51kg Daina Moorehouse, of Enniskerry BC, Wicklow. Daina is from Bray, Co. Wicklow.
54kg Jenny Lehane of DCU Boxing Club, Dublin. Jenny is from Ashbourne, Co. Meath
57kg Michaela Walsh of Holy Family Golden Gloves BC Belfast.
60kg Zara Breslin of Tramore BC, Waterford.
65kg Grainne Walsh of St. Mary’s BC, Tallaght, Dublin. Grainne is from Tullamore, Co. Offaly
70kg Lisa O’Rourke of Castlerea BC, Co. Roscommon
75kg Aoife O’Rourke of Castlerea BC, Co. Roscommon. Team Co-Captain
50kg Louis Rooney of Star BC, Belfast
55kg Patsy Joyce of Olympic BC, Mullingar Co. Westmeath
60kg Adam Hession of Monivea BC, Co. Galway. Team Co-Captain
65kg Dean Clancy of Sean McDermott BC, Co. Leitrim. Dean is from Co. Sligo
70kg Matthew McCole of Illies Golden Glove BC Co. Donegal
75kg Gavin Rafferty of Dublin Docklands Boxing Club
80kg Kelyn Cassidy of Saviours Crystal BC, Co. Waterford
85kg Brian Kennedy of St. Brigid’s BC Edenderry Co. Offaly
90kg Jack Marley of Monkstown BC, Dublin
90+kg Martin McDonagh of Galway BC
Support Staff
- Team Manager: Jon Mackey, National Performance Director
- Head Coach: Zauri Antia
- Coaches: Damain Kennedy, Lynne McEnery, Eoin Pluck, James Doyle and JP Delaney
- Doctor: Jim Clover
- Lead Physio: Rob Tuomey
- Performance Analyst: Alan Swanton
- Logistics Support: Sean Crowley, High Performance Manager