OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS DAY 2 RESULTS

Kellie Harrington booked a ticket for the Tokyo Olympics on a unanimous decision over France’s Maiva Hamadouche in Paris this afternoon.

Hamadouche was expected to broing the fight to Harrington and she didn’t dissapoint, the current IBf world super featherweight champion pouring forward with every opportunity.

But Harrington held her composure to pick off her scores and earned one 10-8 card in the first round and two in the second en route to victory.

Harrington’s weight class requires a top six finish to qualify for Tokyo and the Dubliner is now through to the semi-finals to become the second Irishwoman after Katie Taylor to qualify for the Olympics.

Aoife O’Rourke is also on the plane to Tokyo. The Irishwoman beat Poland’s Elzbieta Wojik on a unanimous decision tonight to qualify.

Wojik, who won the first round, received a public warning for holding in the second round and took a standing count in the third with O’Rourke pouring on the pressure.

Emmet Brennan, meantime, will have to go into the box offs after losing to Croatia’s Luka Plantic in the last eight tonight.

Plantic took a standing count early in the first round but bounced back to take the round. Neither man had to go looking for each other throughout an engaging and hard-punching light heavy contest, but it was Plantic that got the decision.

Meanwhile, Brendan Irvine lost out to Gabriel Escobar on a unanimous decision tonight. Both men have already qualified for Tokyo.

Earlier today, George Bates came within inches of qualifying for the Olympics..

The Dubliner was beaten on a 3-2 split decision by former world champ Javid Chalabiyev of Azerbaijan after three tight rounds.

Bates took the first frame and both men received public warnings for dropping their heads in the second round which Chalabiyev edged.

It all came down to the third round, but it was the Azeri that go the nod and ticket to the Tokyo Games after three round of reltentless action.

Elsewhere today, Kiril Afanasev bowed out to the Spain’s Emanual Reyes and Gytis Lisinskas lost to Bulgaria’s Peter Belberov in the super heavyweight class.

Saturday June 5

1pm (Ring b)

63kg George Bates (Ireland) lost to Javid Chalabiyev (Azerbaijan) 2-3
91kg Kiril Afanasev (Ireland) lost to Emanual Reyes (Spain) 0-5
91+kg Gytis Lisinskas (Ireland) lost to Peter Belberov (BUlgaria) 0-5

Quarter finals
75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Ireland) beat Elzbieta Wojik (Poland) 5-0
52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) lost to Gabriel Escobar (Spain) 0-5
81kg Emmet Brennan (Ireland) lost to Luka Plantic (Croatia) 0-5
60kg Kellie Harrington (Ireland) beat Maiva Hamadouche (France) 5-0