LAST UPDATE | 28 Aug 2019
AMY BROADHURST HAS won Ireland’s second medal at the Women’s European Elite Boxing Championships in Madrid after winning a thrilling 60kg quarter-final against Russian former world champion Anastasia Belokova to seal at least bronze.
The Dundalk woman, who has a plethora of underage accolades to her name — including consecutive golds at the European U22s — burst into tears as she was awarded a unanimous decision and her first-ever major international medal in the adult ranks.
Broadhurst was fighting in Kellie Harrington’s lightweight division with the world champion from Dublin ruled out through injury, and the Dealgan BC southpaw vindicated recent suggestions that she intends to challenge Harrington for a spot at Tokyo 2020 (the pair traded barbs earlier this year after Broadhurst initially decided against pursuing her domestic rival in the Olympic qualification stakes).
She’ll face the scourge of Irish boxing, Mira Potkonen — who eliminated Katie Taylor from the Rio Olympics and has twice beaten Harrington — in Friday’s semis.
The 22-year-old Broadhurst was adjudged to have beaten third seed Belokova on scores of 30-27 x3 and 29-28×2, both of which were fair.
From the off, she found a home for thudding backhand, setting it up with a snappy jab and countering effectively as the Russian approached.
At the end of the second round, Broadhurst appeared to have Belokova reeling briefly as almost comically she detonated three consecutive overhand lefts, each with a long wind-up and each more thunderous than the last, to rubber-stamp her dominance to that point.
She appeared to tire drastically in the third and final round — the only stanza which was awarded to her opponent (by two of the five judges) — but rallied superbly with a couple of left-hand bombs which seemed to imbue her with a second wind, or just enough adrenaline, to finish on the front foot.
As she awaited the judges’ verdict, Broadhurst could be heard exclaiming ‘please!’ as she glanced toward the sky. She had been denied a bronze medal in highly contentious circumstances during her only other Elite major international tournament, last year’s Worlds, but there was to be no denying her on this occasion.
Epic scenes in Spain as @amybroadhurst12 beats Russia to claim European bronze at least pic.twitter.com/s1kmaXbKhF
— Kevin Byrne (@KevByrneBox) August 28, 2019
In another Ireland v Russia quarter-final, Cork’s Christina Desmond lost out on a fair 4-1 split decision to no.2 seed Darima Sandakova in her welterweight (69kg) last-eight tie.
Desmond fought excellently in a highly competitive contest which saw the Cill na Martra puncher pit her wits against the more agile, awkward Russian, who won bronze up at middleweight at the European Games.
The Irish Senior Elite champion from Fr Horgan’s BC landed her fair share of blows but was edged out by the silkier Sandakova, who she heartily congratulated in the aftermath.
Aoife O’Rourke of Roscommon secured Ireland’s first medal by virtue of having reached the semi-finals, in which she’ll compete on Friday.
