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Ireland's Boxers Make History After Sensational World Championships Hat-Trick

Gavan Casey
By Gavan Casey
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Another record broken, but in truth, it's difficult not to harp on like a broken record when you're discussing Ireland's amateur boxers.

At the World Boxing Championships in Doha today, Mick Conlan, Michael O'Reilly and Joe Ward secured another slice of Irish pugilistic history, respective impressive quarter-final victories securing - at the very least - three bronze medals for Ireland, a new record for an island that can now be considered a genuine superpower in the amateur sport.

Belfast bantamweight Conlan continues to march on following European gold at Baku in August, outclassing Azerbaijan's Tayfur Aliyev 30-27. And on his mother's birthday, no less.

Conlan becomes only the third Irish boxer to win medals at the Olympics, European Championships and now World Championships, following in the footsteps of Katie Taylor and John Joe Nevin.

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Laois middleweight Michael O'Reilly followed his team mate and captain into the World semis, shocking the reigning world champion Zhanubek Alimhunaly - who beat Donegal middleweight and current professional Golden Boy Jason Quigley in the 2013 final.

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After the final bell, the scorecards read 29-28 x2 in favour of the man from Portlaoise, and 29-28 in favour of the Kazakh, with a last ditch rally from O'Reilly edging him over the line in the eyes of two judges. All Blacks beware - we're dropping world champions like bad habits at the moment.

Earlier this evening, Joe Ward made it a hat-trick for Billy Walsh and Zaur Antia's talented charges, dancing past Belarus' Mikhail Baudhaliavets 30-27 to reach the light-heavyweight semis.

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A win for 21-year-old Ward on Monday would secure a spot at Rio 2016 for the Moate bruiser, which - following the heartbreak/daylight robbery which cost him a place at London 2012 - would finally allow him to add some Olympic silverware to his rather bland honours list or, you know, possibly take over the entire world:

Looking ahead to the semi-finals, O’Reilly will face off against Uzbek former World and Olympic Youth champion, Bektemir Melikuziev, tomorrow evening, with Irish captain Conlan seeking to piss Paddy Barnes off even more when he trades leather with Dmitry Asanu of Belarus.

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Fellow European king Ward will continue his quest for global domination when he faces another Uzbek challenger, Ishod Rasulov, on Monday.

It could be some weekend for Irish sport.

 

 

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