Michaela Walsh made it a trio of Ireland boxers to have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, joining Kellie Harrington and Dean Clancy following wins that secured medals at the European Games today.
Jack Marley and Aoife O'Rourke have also reached the semi-final stages of the European event to guarantee Ireland five medals, however, both need to reach the final of their respective divisions to secure safe passage to the Paris Games.
Walsh, Harrington and Clancy have now secured bronze medals, at least, and will all have the opportunity to upgrade to a European Games gold or silver.
Belfast fighter Walsh made no mistake in her quarter-final bout to secure a 5-0 unanimous decision victory after easing past Denmark's Melissa Juvonen Mortensen in the evening contest.
The Emerald Boxing Club featherweight comfortably won the opening two rounds before asserting her dominance in the final three minutes, forcing a standing count for her opponent late in the contest.
The 30-year-old will join Harrington in becoming a two-time Olympian, having fought at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
"Not many people get to achieve that once in their life, never mind twice," Walsh told RTÉ Sport.
"My brother (Aidan) has the bragging rights over me, he's an Olympic (bronze) medallist, so hopefully I can go to Paris and get one or two better than him!
"I look at his medal when I come down the stairs every day and it's something I want to achieve.
"It's a surreal moment. I don't think it has really sunk in because I have the rest of the tournament to go.
"Obviously the goal was to achieve qualification. I’m just going through the rest of tournament aiming to perform at the best of my ability and I’ll see where that takes me."
Harrington beat Agnes Alexiusson of Sweden in the 54kg category.
She has guaranteed a medal at the event but, more importantly, secured a chance to win another Olympic gold.
In a close fight, three of the five judges gave Harrington the opening two rounds, giving her a two-point lead going into the finale.
The Dubliner landed three telling combinations to ensure victory, with all judges favouring the Olympic champion in the round for a 4-1 overall success.
The 33-year-old said afterwards that defeat would have brought the curtain down on her boxing career and also acknowledged that events earlier this year outside the ring – in March she said that she is "all about community, inclusion and diversity" after refusing to address a question about her retweeting of a video that featured anti-immigration sentiment – took a toll.
"I said if I qualified out here, I'm going to let things go, because I’ve had a rough few months and this makes it all worthwhile, coming back strong," she told RTÉ Sport.
"I’ll only call myself a double Olympian once I get to Paris, but it’s incredible.
"I feel I’m finally starting to enjoy it [boxing] again. There were moments where I didn’t think I wanted to be here. I was retiring without telling anybody after this if I didn’t qualify, that was my retirement cue to get out."
Sligo boxer Clancy will compete at the Games for the first time after beating Gianluigi Malanga of Italy in the 63.5kg event.
Clancy, who is based in the Sean McDermott BC in Manorhamilton, Leitrim, told RTÉ Sport he was "over the moon" after winning 5-0 with a fantastic performance.
"A dream come true. Since I first laced up the gloves, this was my dream.
"My Dad arrived yesterday and I'm happy to share the moment with him. He was out there in the crowd. It’s a dream between us, he was training me since no age.
"I want to thank everyone back home for the support. The coaches gave me a brilliant game plan."
The 21-year-old dedicated his success to his late grandfather Tony, who died at the weekend.
"I want to dedicate that fight to my grandad, he passed away Saturday before my last fight and he’s after getting buried today. Sending love back home. He was looking down on me there."
Clancy will now fight for at least silver against France’s three-time world champion Sofiane Oumiha.
"I’m looking forward to testing myself against him," said Clancy.
"The first goal is done, I’m after qualifying for the Olympic games. I think the pressure is off me completely and you’re going to see a better performance now."
Aoife O'Rourke powered past Sweden's Love Nelli Holgersson to make it into the semi-finals of the middleweight (75kg) division.
The Roscommon native proved too strong, too athletic and too classy to secure a unanimous 5-0 victory and earn a bronze medal, at least.
She now finds herself just one win away from making a return to the Olympics, having fought in Japan at the last Games.
O'Rouke is the reigning European champion and will take on Poland's Elzbieta Wojcik for a place in the final; the Castlerea fighter beat Wojcik in the decider in Montenegro last October and the two will meet again on Friday at 6:15pm.
Likewise, Jack Marley has put himself in a position to box for an Olympic place after the young heavyweight progressed to the semi-finals with a comprehensive performance over Croatia's Marco Calic.
The Monkstown Boxing Club man impressed throughout, to secure a comfortable 4-1 victory, and Marley was only denied a unanimous decision as a result of one judge awarding the opening two rounds to his opponent.
But Marley had impressed all four of the others, gaining a 10-8 round from one in an excellent first stanza, while all five judges awarded the final round to the Dubliner, who landed a great shot that led to a standing count for Calic.
A European Games medal secured, Marley will now fight for a place in the final, which would stamp his ticket to the Paris Olympics next year - the heavyweight division only offers qualification for the final as opposed to several others, where a semi-final is enough.
Marley will take on Spain's Enmanuel Reyes Pla in their semi-final bout on Friday at 3pm.
There was disappointment, however, for Daina Moorehouse, Amy Broadhurst (66kg) and Jennifer Lehane (54kg).
Broadhurst, a world champion last year, had looked on course for a place in Paris after winning the opening round in the eyes of four judges.
But the Dundalk woman had just a marginal advantage going into the final round as her opponent, Britain's Rosie Joy Eccles, took a grip of the fight in the second.
Eccles dominated the closer with Broadhurst having little response to a flurry of heavy punches, the Welsh woman ensuring a win on a split-decision.
Writing on Instagram afterwards, Broadhurst said: "Heartbroken isn't the word. I always thought my destiny was the Olympic Games. I believed I was born for boxing, I was to be an Olympic champion, and that’s not the way it’s gone for me.
"I don’t know what’s next. I don’t know if I’ll ever strap an amateur glove around my hand again or if I’ll go pro.
"But I just want to say thank you to everyone who showed me support over the years. Thank you for standing by me thru the highs and lows. Thank you to my family and the Irish coaches for everything."
Broadhurst could yet make it to Paris through two worldwide qualifying events early next year however.
Enniskerry Boxing Club fighter, Moorehouse, missed out on a place on the podium by the absolute minimum as she was defeated by France fighter Wassila Lkhadiri.
Boxing off the back foot throughout, Moorehouse impressed in the opening two rounds to lead going into the final three minutes, however, there was mixed scoring across the board with Lkhadiri's aggressive style keeping her right in the contest.
And four of the five judges awarded her a 10-9 score in the final round to nick the contest 3-2 on a scoreline of 30-27 29-28 29-28 28-29 27-30.
Lehane fell short after a defeat to classy Bulgarian Stanimira Petrova.
Petrova won 30-27 on four of the five scorecards in a unanimous win.
Kelyn Cassidy also bowed out of the competition following an impressive, if ultimately losing, performance against the highly regarded Oleksandr Khyzhniak in Poland.
The Waterford man was boxing at 80kg, which is deemed middleweight for the Paris Games, and while he won the first two rounds, he was dealt a double blow in the final round as he lost on all five judges' cards, including a 10-8, while he was also deducted a point, which proved crucial as he lost 3-0 overall.
In badminton, Nhat Nguyen was defeated in his final group game by Dutch opponent Mark Caljouw, 21-16, 21-15.
The 23-year-old fourth seed had already advanced to the last 16 after winning his opening two games against Slovakian and British players, but will now face a more challenging knockout round tie in the shape of Olympic champion Victor Axelsen of Norway.
Nguyen gave this reaction immediately after he came off court: "I think I played a very physical game. He was physically better than me. I struggled to play against him, my record isn’t good against him, but I felt I was playing quite okay at the same time," he said.
In men’s doubles, Joshua Magee and Paul Reynolds were beaten by Azerbaijan 2-1 but still advance to tomorrow’s quarter-finals.
Women’s doubles team Kate Frost and Moya Ryan were eliminated after a 2-0 defeat to Germany while Rachael Darragh was also eliminated in the singles after losing to France’s Xuefei Qi 2-0 (21-18, 24-22).
In fencing, Jadryn Dick, Michalis Kirimlidis and Michael Jacob finished out their European Games in 14th position in the men’s team Sabre.
European Games semi-finals, Friday 30 June
Lightweight (60kg): Kellie Harrington v Estelle Mossely (France), 12:30pm
Lightweight (63.5kg): Dean Clancy v Sofiane Oumiha (France), 2pm
Heavyweight (92kg): Jack Marley v Enmanuel Reyes Pla (Spain), 3pm
Featherweight (57kg): Michaela Walsh v Amina Zidani (France), 5:45pm
Middleweight (75kg): Aoife O'Rourke v Elzbieta Wojcik (Poland), 6:15pm
Watch live coverage of Irish boxers chasing Olympic qualification via live stream.
