Boxer Brendan Irvine has secured Ireland's first medal at the European Games in Baku after he guaranteed himself at least a bronze medal in the men's light flyweight division.
Irvine overcame number one seed Salman Alizada in their quarter-final bout, edging out his rival 86-85 on points in front of a hostile home crowd.
After losing the opening round, the Belfast fighter grew in strength and confidence as the fight progressed as his superior hand-speed and ability to avoid danger saw him take control.
It still took a big effort from Irvine in the final round as he went into it trailing on points but all three judges awarded the final round to the Irishman 10-9, ensuring the least that he will leave Baku with is a bronze medal.
Up next for Irvine is a testing encounter with the Ukraine's highly rated Dmytro Zamotayev on Wednesday.
Dean Gardiner, however, will leave Baku without a medal after getting outclassed by French super heavyweight Tony Yoka.
The number three seed lived up to his ranking as he easily dealt with Gardiner’s energetic and aggressive approach and fought brilliantly off the back foot to control this three round bout.
Aside from some good early jabs from the Clonmel man, the Frenchman outpointed Gardiner in every round using his reach effectively and scoring constantly with a fierce left jab.
Knowing that he was well behind, Gardiner went hell for leather in the final round but could never get within range and Yoka stayed well clear of the wild swipes and came through the contest unscathed.
Gardiner to his credit kept going to the final bell but just lacked that bit of class to really test the Frenchman.
Ceire Smith was narrowly beaten in the quarter-final of the women's flyweight division.
Smith faced Saiana Sagateva of Russia and despite winning the first round, the Cavan fighter lost all three rounds after that and was eventually beaten on a 115-113 scoreline.
Badminton
Ireland were also in action in badminton today, with men's top seed Scott Evans winning his opening Group A match against Greece's Georgios Charalambidis on a 21-7 21-9 scoreline.
Chloe Magee went down to Estonia's Kati Tolmoff in her Group F opener 21-18 21-17. Chloe was also in action in the mixed doubles with her brother Sam. They lost their opening Group A tie against the Czech pair of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova 21-11 19-21 21-14.
In women's doubles, Sara Boyle and Rachael Darragh were defeated by Mathilda Lindholm and Jenny Nystrom of Finland by 21-15 21-15 in Group B.
