No medals for Irish boxers in Rio after Michael Conlan loses quarter-final

Despite many observers believing he had won, Michael Conlan has been defeated in the Olympic Bantamweight quarterfinal by Vladimir Nikitin of Russia.

The first round was judged to have gone in the Russian’s favour, despite many observers feeling the Irish boxer had done enough to win.

How can the judges give that round against Michael Conlan!!!!!? 😮😮😮😮

— Barry Whyte (@BarryWhyte85) August 16, 2016

The second round was stopped twice while Nikitin received attention and the judges gave Conlan the win.

Conlan started sharply in the final round and it looked like he had done enough to earn a semi-final place.

But instead the judges unanimously awarded the fight to Nikitin who now moves forward to the semi-finals on Thursday evening.

Ireland’s boxers and their fans are left to ponder what went wrong with a team who had left for Rio with high hopes of multiple medals.

Haha, this Olympics. Conlan robbed. What a joke. #boxing

— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) August 16, 2016

Ah christ! Utter joke scoring in the first round robbed Conlan. Disgrace!

— ED SMITH (@EdSmithington) August 16, 2016

"Amateur boxing stinks, from the core to the top," a furious Conlan said immediately after the fight.

"They're f**king cheats. they're known for being cheats. They'll always be cheats."

Julianne Ryan, a chartered physiotherapist who is in Rio with the Irish Boxing High Performance Unit, has said on social media that the Russian head coach has apologised for the decision. There has no confirmation yet of the apology.

Russian head coach just apologised to us for @mickconlan11 decision 😖 #Rio2016 #MichaelConlan https://t.co/aLcS0nC1Ec

— Julianne Ryan (@julianne_ryan) August 16, 2016