Daina Moorehouse became the seventh Team Ireland fighter to exit Paris 2024 following their opening fight after suffering a contentious split-decision loss to France's Wassila Lkhadiri in the women’s 50kg division.
The Bray native was making a belated Olympics debut at the Arena Paris Nord on Thursday night having received a bye to the last-16.
The 22-year-old impressed through stages of the fight but the result on the judges' cards means she now joins Dean Clancy, Aidan Walsh, Gráinne Walsh, Jennifer Lehane, Jude Gallagher and Aoife O'Rourke in going out after their first fight at this year's Games.
Moorehouse made a strong start in what was a hyper-partisan atmosphere favouring her opponent, catching Lkhadiri with combinations midway through the first round and she shaded the opener 3-2 on the judges’ cards.
She was caught with a right early in the second as Lkhadiri came forward more but began to work her way back into the round as it progressed, catching her opponent with a left with a minute to go before connecting with another in the final seconds.
But the French fighter was awarded the second round 4-1 to leave the fight in the balance going into the final round with four judges scoring it 19-19 and another having Lkhadiri 20-19 up.
Both connected as the third round ticked into the last two minutes. Moorehouse then landed with a quick combination before doing so again with 50 seconds left and appeared to finish strongly on the front foot.
But it wasn’t enough to please the judges, who awarded the final round 4-1 in Lkhadiri's favour.
Team Ireland head coach Zaur Antia could be seen remonstrating with officials after the fight, and Moorehouse made her feelings clear about the decision when speaking to RTÉ Sport.
"I still think I am a better boxer than her. I don't know what the judges were looking at," she said.
"I tried my best, I knew getting in I was going to be getting booed; I knew what to expect and I didn't let any of that faze me. I don't know what to say.
"The first round, they said it was 3-2 to me, which is fair. I thought maybe it was a bit clearer, but I thought I pushed a lot in the third, I thought that was clear but I lost the round 4-1, so I don't really know.
"I don't know what they're judging by."
Ireland are guaranteed one medal from the boxing contingent with Kellie Harrington having qualified for a semi-final in the women's 60kg ranks, while later tonight Jack Marley can secure a second medal if he can beat Tajikistan's second seed Davlat Boltaev in the 92kg ranks.
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.
