Aoife O'Rourke suffered a surprise defeat to Poland's Elzbieta Wojcik in her opening, last-16 middleweight bout at the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Roscommon woman was the second seed in the 75kg category and had never lost to unseeded Wojcik in six previous meetings but came out on the wrong side of a 3-2 split decision after a scrappy encounter.
Wojcik tried to rush O'Rourke from the opening bell but she was swinging wildly and lost a point after repeated warnings for holding. The Irish woman landed the cleaner punches and three judges gave the first round to her 10-8, the other two calling it 9-9 with the point off.
The Pole continued to try to swarm O'Rourke in the second round and swayed three of the judges despite some big rights from the Irish woman.
Wojcik received multiple warnings in the third round as she continued to hold and slap but avoided any further sanction and her volume punching seemed to be rated higher by the Canadian judge who had called it a round apiece in the first two.
The final scores were 29-27, 29-27, 26-30, 28-29 and 28-28, the latter sticking with Wojcik when forced to pick a winner.
A devastated Aoife O'Rourke reacts to her split decision defeat against Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland#RTESport #Paris2024
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 31, 2024
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OpuLh
📱Updates https://t.co/01ShZjMyXa pic.twitter.com/I3wGB7se1J
"I'm so disappointed. I've let everyone down," O'Rourke told RTÉ Sport shortly after leaving the ring. "Myself, the coaches, all the support... I didn't train the last few years to come out [like that].
"I gave it my best and that's all I can ask of myself."
On the repeated calls of holding against her opponent, she said: "It gets frustrating but there's nothing I can do. It is what it is.
"She's a brilliant opponent. It's not our first time to meet, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy battle.
"Fair play to her and I hope she continues on in the competition."
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
