Irish boxers look to secure medals in Baku

Ireland’s boxers are looking to secure our first three medals at the European Games today, with three quarter-final bouts having Irish interest at the Crystal Hall.

Brendan Irvine of St Paul’s Belfast faces home Azerbaijan fighter Salman Aliadza at 9:15am Irish time, and Ceire Smith of Cavan is in women’s flyweight action at 2:15pm against Russian Saiana Sagateva.

Clonmel super-heavyweight Dean Gardiner will be hoping a victory for him at 5:30pm over Tony Yoka of France will secure an Irish hat-trick of medals.

Ireland’s badminton campaign is also underway this morning with a busy series of matches.

Chloe Magee is facing Estonia’s Kati Tolmoff in her opening match in Group F – Tolmoff took the first set 21-18 - while men’s top seed Scott Evans plays Georgios Charalambidis of Greece in his opening this afternoon.

In women’s doubles, Sara Boyle and Rachel Darragh have been beaten in their opening match 21-15 21-15 by Finnish pair Mathilda Lindstrom and Jenny Nystrom.

Later, the Magee siblings face into further doubles action as Sam and Josh meet Danish duo Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in the men’s doubles, while around 5:30pm this evening in the mixed doubles, Chloe and Sam take on the Czech combination of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova.