Aoife O'Rourke secured a unanimous decision victory in the final of the European Games to win the gold medal in Poland.
The Roscommon boxer opened the middleweight fight against France's Davina-Myrha Michel with a solid first round, impressing all five judges to take it 5:0 on the scorecards.
O'Rouke maintained the dominant performance throughout rounds two and three to secure an overall 5:0 decision to add another gold medal to her collection, having previously won at the European Championships in 2019 and 2022.
The Castlerea native, who celebrated her 26th birthday with the victory, has enjoyed a near perfect week in Poland, where she also secured her ticket to the Paris Olympic Games.
Overall, Ireland leave the European Games with two boxing gold medals - Kellie Harrington secured the other on Saturday - one silver, won by young heavyweight Jack Marley, and two bronze medals for Sligo's Dean Clancy and Belfast boxer Michaela Walsh.
All five boxers will compete for Ireland at next summer's Olympics in the French capital.
"It's a pretty special birthday, I couldn't have asked for it to go any better. The coaches got the tactics spot on, it's not my usual style of boxing and I trusted them..." - Aoife O'Rourke speaks to RTE Sport following her European Games gold medal victory. pic.twitter.com/rM0k7hbhK8
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 2, 2023
"It's a pretty special birthday, I couldn't have asked for it to go any better," said O'Rourke, speaking to RTÉ Sport after the victory. "'Im delighted to be coming away from the European Games with a gold medal.
"It was just going so fast, I just had to listen to my coach in the corner and implement it. It's great to see that I can mix it up, and get in with a girl like that and actually box.
"The coaches got the tactics spot on, it's not my usual style of boxing and I trusted them. I remained calm, lots of feinting and stuff like that and it all paid off. I have 100% trust in their tactics."
Elsewhere, Bray's Amy Wall became the first Irish kickboxer to win a European Games gold medal after she won the decider in the 60kg full contact class.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, the Olympics, anything under that banner has been a dream since I was a kid. I’m sure tomorrow I’ll sit back and reflect, the emotions are racing right now," said 22-year-old Wall.
"I’m happy with how that went, the girl I was fighting is a well respected Norwegian. We’ve met before so I knew I was going to have it tough coming in, but the game plan worked and I executed everything that I needed to and I’m really happy with my performance."
Team-mate Nathan Tait claimed silver in the 74kg point fighting after losing his final to Hungarian Martin Balint 15-5.
Conor McGlinchey was beaten by his German opponent in the narrowest of margins 16-15 in the 84kg point fighting to also claim kickboxing silver.
In canoe slalom, Ireland’s Liam Jegou and Jake Cochrane exited the European Games at the semi-final stage in 24th, and 30th place respectively. Michaela Corcoran also finished 30th in the women’s equivalent.
Belfast’s Alistair McCreery did not advance from his kayak cross quarter-final today, after an impressive ninth in the qualification round.
Team Ireland head home from these European Games with 13 medals across five sports; five in boxing, five in kickboxing, and one in athletics, rugby and taekwondo respectively. Key Olympic qualification has also been secured in the men’s rugby sevens, as well as the five aforementioned spots in boxing.
The majority of the team, including boxing and kickboxing medallists, will arrive home to Terminal 1 at Dublin Airport on Monday evening around 5.45pm.
