Grainne Walsh brings home bronze after semi-final defeat at World Boxing Championships

BRONZE MEDAL: Kazakhstan Aida Abikeyeva, right, celebrates after defeating Ireland's Grainne Walsh in their Women's 65kg semi-final bout during the World Boxing Championships. Pic:  Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Grainne Walsh will bring home a bronze medal at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool after her 65kg semi-final defeat against Kazakhstan's Aida Abikeyeva.

It was a high-tempo, close bout with the 5-0 decision going to Abikeyeva with the judges scoring the bout 28:29, 28:29, 28:29, 28:29, 27: 30 with the minimal margin between the two athletes.

Abikeyeva is the 2025 World Boxing Cup champion, the 2024 Asian champion and the IBA World Champion.

Grainne carved her path to the semi-finals with a resounding Last 32 stage win over Jessica Triebelova of Slovakia, where she was dominant, coming away with a 5-0 win. 

She boxed a masterful contest at the Last 16 stage against Mariana Soto Torres of Spain, and a second unanimous decision. The Offaly woman claimed her bronze medal by defeating the Paris Olympics silver medalist China's Yang Liu 3-2.

Aoife O'Rourke and Patsy Joyce will vie to up-grade their medals, with their semi-finals taking place on Saturday.

Double Olympian and four-time continental champion O'Rourke contests to step-up the 75kg podium against China's Chengyu Yang - That's Bout 6, and will take place at around 1.30pm. 

The Castlerea woman got to the semi-finals with a 5-0 win over Czech Republic's Monika Langerova, and a 4-1 win over fellow Olympian, Sunniva Hofstad of Norway. Hofstad is the only boxer this year, male or female, to have won gold at all World Boxing Cups.

Westmeath’s Joyce, boxing at 55kg, will take on Spain’s Rafael Serrano Lozano, a Paris Olympian. Joyce is one of the youngest members of Team Ireland at just 19 years of age, and has parried & side-stepped his way to the semi finals with three wins. 

The first, over Jaeyong Shin of Korea, the second over Cuban-born Bulgarian Olympian and World and European medalist, Javier Ibanez Diaz, and the third over Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov – an Asian champion and World Boxing Cup medalist. The latter two of Joyce’s opponents are more than a decade his senior. Joyce steps between the ropes in Bout 10, at approximately 2.30pm.