Eight boxers secure places at Paris 2024 on semi-final day European Games 2023
Eight boxers from France, Turkey, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Great Britain and Azerbaijan secured qualification for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris in a pulsating day of semi-final action today at the European Games 2023 in Poland.
It means that all 44 qualification places that were on offer to the 319 boxers that competed at the European Games have now been secured.
The six men and two women who secured qualification today by reaching the final of their weight class are:
Women’s middleweight (75kg):
- Aoife O’Rourke, Ireland
- Davina Myrha Michel, France
Men’s flyweight (51kg):
- Bilal Bennama, France
- Samet Gumus, Turkey
Men’s heavyweight (92kg)
- Jack Marley, Ireland
- Aziz Abbes Mouhiidine, Italy
Men’s super-heavyweight (92kg+).
- Delicious Orie, Great Britain
- Mahammad Abdullayev, Azerbaijan
The finals of the women’s 54kg, 60kg, 66kg and the men’s 51kg, 63.5kg, 80kg and 92kg will be held on Saturday 1 July 2023 from 1800 (CET).
The qualification bouts were interspersed throughout a day of semi-final action which included all 13 men and women’s weight classes.
The first category to compete for a place at Paris 2024 was the men’s flyweight division (51kg) which saw France’s Bilal Bennama outpoint Great Britain’s Kiaran MacDonald to earn a place at his home Games next year.
He will be joined by Turkey’s Samet Gumus who became his country’s fourth Olympic qualifier when he defeated Federico Emilio Serra of Italy.
The other qualification bout in the afternoon session was the men’s heavyweight (92kg) category which saw Ireland’s Jack Marley deliver a decisive final round to edge out Spain’s 2021 world championship silver medallist, Enmanuel Reye Pla by a split decision.
Making the trip to Paris with him will be Italy’s two-time world championship silver medallist Aziz Abbes Mouhiidine who unanimously defeated the home nation’s Mateusz Bereznicki to secure the second Olympic place at heavyweight.
The evening session saw the final Olympic places get settled.
In the women’s middleweight (75kg) category, Ireland’s Aoife O’Rourke defeated Poland’s Elzbieta Wojic to secure a place in Paris where she will be joined France’s Davina Myrha Michel who scored a unanimous victory over Irina Nicoletta Schoenberger of Germany.
The final two bouts of the session saw Great Britain’s Delicious Orie secure a unanimous victory over Yordan Alain Hernandez Morejon of Bulgaria. He will meet Mahammad Abdullayev of Azerbaijan in Sunday’s final after his win over Germany’s Nelvie Raman Tiafack.
The rest of the day saw a series of high-quality contests as 52 boxers from 19 countries battled for places in this weekend’s finals.
In the women’s weights, Bulgaria’s Stanimira Petrova was in excellent form as she scored a unanimous victory over Great Britain’s Charley Davison to secure a place in the bantamweight (54kg) final where she will meet Romania’s Lenuta Lacramio Perijoc.
At lightweight (60kg), Ireland’s Kellie Harrington won the battle of the Olympic champions as she comprehensively outpointed her predocessor from Rio, Estelle Mossely of France. The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist will take-on Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina in Saturday’s final.
Another reigning Olympic champion, Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, faced a much tougher contest in her welterweight (66kg) semi-final and had to come from behind to secure a split decision win over Great Britain’s, Rosie Eccles. Belgium’s Oshin Derieuw awaits her in Saturday’s final.
In the other women’s weight divisions there were wins for Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu and France’s Wassila Lkhadiri at flyweight (50kg), while at featherweight (57kg), Bulgaria’s Svetlana Kameno Staneva and Amina Zidani from France earned the right to compete in Sunday’s final.
In the men’s competition, three-time world champion, Sofiane Oumiha, used all his experiecne to outfox Itreland’s Dean Clancy and set-up an intriguing light-welterweight (63.5kg) final against Georgia’s rising star, Lasha Guruli, who defeated Hungary’s Richard Kovacs.
At light-heavweight (80kg), Tokyo 2020’s middleweight silver medallist, Oleksandr Khyziniak of Ukraine, overpowered Italy’s Salvatore Cavallaro and will meet Gabriel Veocic of Croatia in tomorrow’s final.
Elsewhere in the men’s weights there were wins for Bulgaria’s Javier Ibanez Diaz and Spain’s Jose Quiles Brotons at featherweight (57kg). At light-middleweight, Serbia’s Vakhid Abbasov will meet Denmark’s Nikolai Terteryan in Sunday’s final.
The finals of the women’s 50kg, 57kg, 75kg and the men’s 57kg, 71kg and 92kg+ will take place on Sunday 2 July 2023 from 1300.
All the action can be viewed live here – https://europeangames.tv/sports/boxing
The draw and all results at the European Games 2023 can be viewed at – https://results.european-games.org/EG2023/ENG/schedule/BOX/2023-06-24/all-event
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