Brendan Irvine’s debut win

Brendan Irvine made a successful senior international championship boxing debut, having survived a small scare on the way to his bout in Baku yesterday.

The 19-year-old Holy Trinity fighter won a unanimous decision over Bulgarian Tinko Banabakov, despite arriving at the venue just 10 minutes before his scheduled fight time, due to his driver first dispatching him at the wrong venue.

“We got a taxi, rather than use the athlete busses,” revealed head coach Billy Walsh.

“The taxi man brought us to the boxing federation building rather than the boxing venue.

“It took us 80 minutes to get here, due to the road closures that are in place for the cycling race,” added Walsh.

“We only got to the arena two bouts before the fight.” However, Irvine settled and quickly worked fast combinations. There was no sign of inexperience, despite having only won his first national senior title last January.

“That was the plan,” explained Irvine. “Getting a fast start. You need to win the first round, especially here to get the win. You have to work the first round to win.”

It was a convincing victory, Irvine scoring 30–26, 30-27, 29-28, with only the Azerbaijan judge not scoring Irvine 10 points in the final round, instead giving that round to Banabakov.

The Belfast man will now face local fighter Salman Alizada in Sunday’s quarter-final bout. Alizada took bronze at the 2013 European championships, having been defeated by Paddy Barnes for the silver.

Meanwhile, Ceire Smith came through her women’s light-flyweight round of 16 bout against Norwegian Camilla Johansen in controlled fashion. The judges awarded the 20-year-old Cavan boxer all four rounds for a 40–36 decision.

Smith faces a difficult assignment in the quarter-final on Monday against Russian Saiana Sagateva, who beat Italian Terry Gordini.

A weak start saw archer Sinead Cuthbert Cunningham exit Baku 2015 after a 6–0 defeat to Russian Natalia Erdynieva, Erdynieva having won each of the three sets.

Natasha MacManus failed to progress to the one-meter springboard diving final. The 17-year-old placed 19th of 29 athletes. The top 12 made the final. Only junior divers are competing at this year’s European Games.