Boxing
Belfast boxer Sean McComb has secured at least a bronze medal at the European Games as he easily defeated Turkey’s Yasin Yilmaz in the lightweight quarter-finals.
There was a slow start to the opening round as McComb stayed out of danger and looked to use his far superior reach, but eventually the Belfast man started to find his range and unleashed several excellent combinations to score well.
And the judges were in agreement as all three scored the opening round 10-9 to McComb.
The Holy Trinity fighter maintained his in and out approach in what was a scrappy second round with Yilmaz adapting a more aggressive approach as he attempted to get in close to the Irish fighter.
And one of the judges was impressed with what he saw giving the round to the Turk. However, the other two scored it to McComb, who was probably slightly more accurate throughout the lively three minutes.
There was an air of desperation from Yilmaz in the final round as he knew he was behind on the judges scorecards, however, McComb boxed intelligently throughout and maintained his composure to take the contest on a unanimous 3-0 decision.
Dean Walsh, however, was knocked out of as he was defeated by Germany’s Kastriot Sopa in the light welterweight quarter-finals.
A second round warning put the Irish boxer under huge pressure going into the final round and Walsh failed to make up the difference as the awkward German took the contest on a unanimous 3-0 decision to progress.
Adam Nolan was the last Irish fighter in action today. He was unable to out-point Britain's Josh Kelly, losing his welterweight bout with the Briton on a 2-1 call from the judges.
Nolan lost the first round to Britain’s Kelly after a very tight three minutes.
The second round saw Nolan come forward and attack his opponent and find contact both with left and right hooks and jabs, cutting open the Brit’s left eye; however, Kelly was more industrious in his punching power and again outscored the Irishman.
The third round saw Nolan get the better of his British opponent, but it was too little too late for the Irishman.
Badminton
Scott Evans maintained his 100% start to Group A in the men's singles badminton competition. A 14-21, 21-13, 21-13 victory over Belgium's Yuhan Tan sees Evans top the group with one match remaining against Hungary's Gergely Krausz.
Chloe Magee eased through her second group game at the European Games in Baku, defeating Kristine Sefere in the badminton singles Group F encounter.
The Irish Olympian was rarely troubled by her Latvian opponent and secured the 2-0 victory in just over 22 minutes with a scoreline of 21-9, 21-7.
The number six seed was beaten in her opening game and will face Lianne Tan from Belgium on Wednesday as she looks to progress through the group stage to the last 16.
Magee was back in action later on Tuesday as she competed in the mixed doubles with her brother Sam and the top seeded Irish siblings proved too strong for Povilas Bartusis and Vytaute Fomkinaite of Lithuania, winning the match 2-0 (21-8, 21-10) in 22 minutes.
In the women's doubles, Sara Boyle and Rachael Darragh were beaten 21-19, 21-18 by French duo Lorraine Baumann and Audrey Fontaine.
In the men's doubles, Sam and Joshua Magee beat Portugal's Ricardo and Angelo Silva 21-15 21-6.
Swimming
Mona McSharry and Emma Reid were both in semi-final action on the opening day of competition at the European Games in Baku after they qualified form this morning heats in the 50m breaststroke and 200m butterfly.
Having swum a best time of 32.84 in the 50m breaststroke this morning McSharry could not improve on that time finishing in 33 seconds in the semi-final.
The time placed her 15th overall. The Marlins, Donegal, swimmer will be back in the pool tomorrow in the heats of the 100m breaststroke and will be joined by Niamh Kilgallen. Russia’s Maria Astashkina was the fastest qualifier for the 50m breaststroke final in 31.47 seconds.
Despite swimming a new personal best in the 200m butterfly semi-final, Reid did not progress to the final. Reid took over a second off her heat time finishing in 2 minutes 20.05 seconds to place 14th overall.
The Ards SC swimmer will return to the pool on Thursday for the 100m butterfly. Spain’s Carmen Balbuena Heredia was the fastest qualifier for the 200m butterfly final in 2:11.52.
Niamh Kilgallen was ninth in her heat of the same discipline but failed to progress as her time of 34.02secs was 27th fastest.
McSharry also went in the heats of the 100m freestyle but failed to progress, finishing eighth in her heat in a time of 1:00.51.
Rachel Bathel and Iseult Hayes also went in the 100m freestyle but neither swimmer made it through, finishing 30th and joint 40th respectively.
Benjamin Doyle won his heat of the 50m butterfly, however, his time of 25.77 seconds was not fast enough to see the 17-year-old through to the semi-finals as he posted the 43rd fastest time of the heats.
James Brown was fourth in his heat of the same event and also failed to progress as he posted the 46th fastest time of 25.88secs.
Katie Baguley was third in the 400m individual medley in a time of 5:15.60 but she missed out on a place in the final as she was 19th fastest overall.
Andrew Moore had to compete in a three-man heat in the 200m breaststroke and the Galway swimmer paced the race properly coming from behind to win in a time of 2.26.16, which was just outside his season’s best but not enough to see him through to the semi-finals.
Danielle Hill from Larne sixth in a fast heat of the 2.22.41 200m backstrokeand also missed out on a place in the semis as her time put her 21st fastest overall.
3x3 basketball
The Ireland women's 3x3 basketball team have lost their opening Group C match against Slovenia on a 14-10 scoreline.
Two outside shots from Niamh Dwyer narrowed the gap to a single point with 32 seconds remaining before a rapid-fire response from the tournament’s sixth seeds pushed them through.
“It’s an encouraging first game, but we’re disappointed,” said Team Captain Suzanne Maguire.
“We really wanted this one. I think towards the end of the game when we were getting things right, we knew we could have had them. But we didn’t do it right for long enough and 3x3 is not forgiving. You run out of time very quickly and we did today."
Ireland opened the scoring through Orla O’Reilly and their aggressive defence forced a number of shot-clock violations.
The Slovenians however soon used the 6’2’’ Masa Pirsic inside to open up a six-point lead.
Ireland regrouped after a timeout with 2:45 left to go and O’Reilly pulled up to hit a jump shot before Dwyer’s perimeter shooting brought them right back into contention.
O’Reilly finished the game with five points while Suzanne Maguire also got on the score sheet.
Ireland will play their remaining group games against Spain and Slovakia tomorrow before the knock-out phase of the competition on Thursday.
