IRISH BOXING GREAT Jim McCourt has died aged 79.

Belfast man McCourt took lightweight bronze at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo after losing a highly contentious 3-2 decision to the Soviet Union’s Velikton Barannikov in their 60kg semi-final.

Barannikov would years later contact McCourt via letter and express to him his belief that the judges got the result of their fight wrong.

McCourt won bronze at the European Championships a year after the Tokyo Games, and won gold at light-welterweight at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

Immaculata Boxing Club man McCourt also won seven Irish senior titles throughout his storied career.

As the only Irish athlete to win an Olympic medal in 1964, McCourt was named as the country’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremony of the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

He is one of 18 boxers to have won Olympic medals for Ireland, a haul which makes up for over half of the country’s total Olympic medals since Ireland first competed as an independent state in 1924.