European Games round-up

Katie Taylor led a successful charge of Ireland’s boxers in Day Nine action at the European Games in Baku, with all four winning their last-16 bouts.

Taylor took care of the last woman to beat her in a competitive contest, Denitsa Eliseeva of Bulgaria, with a unanimous points victory at the Crystal Hall.

The Olympic champion was awarded every round by every judge in a facile victory.

Portlaoise middleweight Michael O’Reilly and Kilkenny heavyweight Darren O’Neill also had a successful day of it with 3-0 unanimous points wins.

O’Reilly saw off Montenegran Emir Sabotic 30-27 30-27 30-27 with again every round going his way on every scorecard, with O’Neill having a tighter margin over Latvian Raitis Sinkevics 29-28 29-28 30-27, as two judges gave the Baltic fighter the final round.

Wexford light-welterweight Dean Walsh, coached by his uncle Billy Walsh, was given a split-decision over Russian Maxim Dadashev.

Two of the judges scored the contest Walsh’s way 29-28 (two rounds to one) but incredibly Norwegian judge Geir Dahlen awarded every round to Dadashev.

All four fighters are now through to the quarter-finals, with Walsh facing Germany’s Kastriot Sopa at 10:45am Irish time Tuesday morning.

O’Reilly takes on Slovenia’s Aljaz Venko 9:15am Wednesday, O’Neill is on an hour later against Ukraine’s Gevorg Manukian, while Taylor gets that session underway at 8:45am Irish time against Ida Lundblad of Sweden.

In cycling’s men’s road race, Conor Dunne in 45th and twice Junior Tour of Ireland winner Eddie Dunbar in 48th were the only Irish finishers, as Sean Downey, Ryan Mullen and Jack Wilson succumbed before the end.

Luis Leon Sanchez took the honours for Spain in a sprint finish ahead of second-placed Andriy Grivko of Ukraine and Petr Vakoc of the Czech Republic.

Belgian Tom Boonen was sixth.

Meanwhile, Natasha MacManus came tenth in the final of the women’s 3m springboard diving after qualifying during the morning session, as Britain’s Katherine Torrance took gold.