Champ Taylor through to European semi-finals

DEFENDING champion, Katie Taylor, is through to the semi-finals of the 60kg division at the Women’s European Boxing championships in Warsaw after a decisive victory over the Romanian, Florina Popa, in last night’s semi-final.

The Bray girl, who also plays international soccer for Ireland, was given a unanimous decision by the judges after a computer failure.

“But it was a pretty clear cut decision,” Fermoy official, Pa Flynn, insisted. “She put her opponent on the floor with a big right hand just 30 seconds into the contest and after that it was pretty one-way traffic. She has been very, very impressive in both her contests here.”

In her opening contest she beat Teuta Cuni of Sweden in the second round when the referee stopped the contest with the defending champion leading 19-2 on the computer.

“And if the computer was working this time around I am sure this contest would have also been stopped,” her father and coach, Pete Taylor, said.

“She was throwing big punches and she was throwing a lot of them. Most of them were getting through.”

Tonight she faces a difficult assignment when she climbs into the ring against the teak-tough Turk, Guisim Patar. Taylor beat Patar en route to the European title last time around but when they met in the EU championships this year Patar won.

Patar is currently ranked two in the world but Taylor, already assured of a bronze medal, is unlikely to relinquish her European title at this stage of the tournament. The world champion, Patiana Shalaya meets Anna Aksprzak in the second semi-final.