Jack Woolley loses out on bronze medal match by slimmest of margins

Ireland’s Jack Woolley with Adrian Vicente Yunta of Spain. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Jack Woolley’s Olympic medal hopes are over – for 2024 – after the Tallaght man lost a brilliantly entertaining and savagely close repechage match to Spain’s Adrian Vicente Yunta at the Grand Palais in the centre of the French capital.

The Irishman had lost his first 58kg fight 2-0 in rounds to Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan earlier on Wednesday. It meant that his only lifeline at that point would come with a bronze medal repechage – but only if Magomedov made it through to the final.

It didn’t look likely.

Accounting for Ireland’s seventh seed was one thing but Magomedov, tenth in the rankings, then put in two more devastating performances to knock out Vicente Yunta, the second seed, and Italy’s reigning Olympic champion Vito Dell Aquila.

It meant a reprieve for Woolley, but almost eight hours after he had first fought . He gave as good as he got, the number seven seed losing out 10-9 in the first round, and on a tie-breaker in the second when they finished 2-2.

Inches and milliseconds were all that were in it.

Had those margins leaned in Woolley’s favour he would have had one more match to claim a bronze medal but it wasn’t to be. A two-time Olympian now, he has already set his sights on making it third time lucky in LA in 2028.