Lisa and Aoife O’Rourke will come home from the 2025 Women’s World Championship with a silver medal apiece. These two extraordinary women have made history by becoming the first sisters to contest Women’s World Championship finals on the same day.
Lisa, the 2022 World champion, boxed out of the blue corner when she took on Russia’s Elena Gapeshina. 27 year old Gapeshina is a 2024 European silver medalist, with one pro victory. She’s a previous All-Russian National Summer Championship silver medalist, and boxed at 75kg earlier in her career. This was a spirited and highly physical bout, and despite contesting the end, the judges found in Gapeshina’s favour. Lisa says “She was a tough operator – canny, and quick. The support from home was very important throughout this tournament, and it was amazing to be with Aoife on the team”
Double Olympian and four time continental champion Aoife was in the red corner in her bout against Anastasiia Shamonova of Russia. The pair have meet four times before: during the 2024 European Elite Championship 75kg finals, where Aoife came away the 5-0 victor there. They also met during the 73rd Strandja Memorial Tournament, at semi-finals stage in 2022. Aoife won through to the finals on that occasion. In the 2019 EUBC Women’s European Championships Semi-Final – Aoife was the winner. And their first meeting was in the 2018 EUBC European Women’s U22 Championships Quarter-Final, where the UD went to Shamonova. The bout was a ferocious affair, fought predominantly in close distance – neither boxer took a backward step. One or two eye-catching shots for Shamonova sealed the decision. Aoife says “We go back a long way and have fought each other many times. She’s fast and stays in close. It was a tough bout – but having Lisa with me made a big difference”
High Performance Head Coach Zauri Antia says “Lisa and Aoife are extraordinary athletes in an extraordinary team. They both had excellent tournaments with wins over Azerbaijan, Morocco and Kazakhstan & Uzkekistan and Serbia, respectively. Its important that this is Aoife’s first tournament since Paris, and that Lisa last boxed at the European U23s. This is the first year in the Olympic cycle, and so it’s a development year. This has been a very important tournament for us, and I want to congratulate all members of the team, their clubs, and families – especially the O’Rourke family, and Paddy Sharkey of Castlerea BC.”
Two members of Team Ireland were contesting the first benchmark events of their careers – 48kg Carleigh Irving lost to eventual quarter finalist, Tayonis Cedeno of Venezuela, while 81+kg Judy Bobbett lost to now 6 time Women’s World Championship medalist, Elif Guneri of Turkey, who was a semi-finalist in this iteration of the competition. While three members of the team, 50kg Daina Moorehouse, 54kg Jenny Lehane and 66kg Grainne Walsh, were boxing their first WWC.
Daina lost to eventual silver medalist, 8th seed Hu Meiyi. Jenny lost to Natnicha Chongprongklang of Thailand, who was denied a finals berth on a split decision and goes home with bronze. Grainne lost to eventual silver medalist, Khamidova Navbakhor of Uzbekistan. 57kg Michaela Walsh lost to eventual gold medalist, Serbia’s Andela Brankovic.
In all, 239 boxers from 51 federations contested this tournament; in 2023, the last iteration of these championships, 324 boxers from 64 federations competed.
IABA President, Anto Donnelly says “What an achievement by the O’Rourke sisters – and congratulations to every member of the team. It’s an honour to be selected to represent your country, and the entire Women’s World Championship team did so with pride. I’d like to echo Zauri in his congratulations to Oakleaf, Enniskerry, DCU Athletic, Holy Family GG, St. Mary’s Tallaght and Liberty. A very special mention to Paddy Sharkey of Castlerea BC – what a night for the club, and for Roscommon. To have two boxers achieving silverat World level is the stuff of dreams – and its testament to the quality of coaching from grass-roots to High Performance level”
Chair of IABA’s Board of Directors, Niall O’Carroll “Aoife and Lisa are history-makers – the first ever sisters to contest the same World Championship finals. Their achievements and that of the entire WWC team speaks to the strength of the relationships between clubs, High Performance boxing technical training and targeted sport science support available through our partnership with Sport Ireland and the Institute of Sport. Aoife has been a member of the HPU for 6 years, and Lisa, for 4. The scale of their achievement in this time is staggering and it’s something of which they, and we, can be proud”
John Nangle, IABA Interim CEO “What a moment this is, for Irish Boxing and for the O’Rourke family. When we box on the world stage, we achieve – an incredible feat for a federation of our size. On a per capita basis, we’re among the smallest constantly active federations, not only in Europe, but in the world. Pardoning the pun, we punch above our weight, consistently. Congratulations to the O’Rourke sisters, to the High Performance Team and to Castlerea BC.”
ENDS
Dublin Airport Arrival Information, 17th March
- Flight: KL1141
- Arriving from: Amsterdam
- Terminal: Terminal 1
- Arrival time: 16:40hrs
Team Ireland
48kg Carleigh Irving, Oakleaf Boxing Club, Derry
50kg Daina Moorehouse, Enniskerry Boxing Club, Wicklow
54kg Jenny Lehane, DCU Athletic Boxing Club, Dublin
57kg Michaela Walsh, Holy Family GG, Belfast
66kg Grainne Walsh, St. Mary’s BC Tallaght, Dublin
70kg Lisa O’Rourke, Castlerea BC, Roscommon
75kg Aoife O’Rourke, Castlerea BC, Roscommon
81+kg Judy Bobbett, Liberty Boxing Club, Wicklow.
Team Manager, Ciara Plunkett
Head Coach Zauri Antia
Coach Damian Kennedy
Coach Eoin Pluck
Physiotherapist Rob Tuomey.
