Updated at 20.05pm
ADAM NOLAN’S HOPES of securing a medal at the European Games ended with defeat to Britain’s Josh Kelly in Baku this afternoon.
The Wexford boxer lost the welterweight quarter-final fight on a 2-1 split decision.
Kelly’s electric footwork proved the difference in a tight bout with the 21-year-old from Sunderland winning the first two rounds before Nolan took the third and final one.
Nolan’s disappointment follows Dean Walsh’s light welterweight defeat to Kastriot Sopa this morning.
Katie Taylor steps up her medal challenges with a quarter-final bout on Wednesday.
The world, European and Olympic champion is in the ring at 8.45am Irish time for her bout with 19-year-old Ida Lundblad of Sweden in the Women’s Lightweight division.
Elsewhere, the women’s basketball 3×3 team commenced their campaign today and were narrowly beaten 14-10 by European runners-up Slovenia but it was an encouraging start in this new form of basketball.
“It’s an encouraging first game, but we’re disappointed,” said 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 3×3 is not forgiving. You run out of time very quickly and we did today.”
The game is played on a half-court, with just one basket, with three players on each side. There is just one single period of 10 minutes.
Ireland will play their remaining group games against Spain and Slovakia tomorrow before the knockout phase of the competition on Thursday.