‘It’s a great honour’ – Gold for Ireland’s Aoife O’Rourke at World Boxing Championships
O’Rourke put on a masterclass in the 75kg division against Turkey's Busra Isildar to claim a unanimous 5-0 decision.The Castlerea Olympian adds World gold to her IBA World silver medal that she won in March, and her four European medals, in what has been an illustrious amateur career.O’Rourke fought her way to the final with victories over Czech Republic’s Monika Langerova, a fellow Olympian, Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad, and 2023 World champion China’s Chengyu Wang.The 28-year-old put massive pressure on her opponent, and her intensity never waivered as the rounds went on, as Isildar’s usually quick feet were neutralised by O’Rourke’s pressure.She was emotional when the announcement came to crown her champion, as the usually calm and focused O’Rourke finally let her guard down, overcome with joy.“I’m absolutely delighted. It’s a great honour to be putting my name alongside the other girls and men and women who have achieved this for Ireland as well,” she told RTÉ afterwards.We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.Please review your details and accept them to load the contentShe follows in the footsteps of her sister Lisa who won the light middleweight in Istanbul three years ago. But Aoife remained coy about when asked about the secrets to their family success.“I can’t be telling you that. I’ll be keeping that under my nose,” she added.“There are a lot of ingredients for a recipe for success and that comes with talent, hard work, coming to training, discipline, all that.“But everyone outside of that who feeds into it an gives their portion - coaches, staff, physios, you name it, they’re all there behind the scenes and they’re the ones that see the process along the way and are there with you every step of the way.“Everyone wants to be part of the outcome but it’s who’s with you along the way that gets you to this point. So I’ve all them to thank.”Patsy Joyce and Gráinne Walsh are also being awarded their bronze medals today.The 19-year-old Joyce, contesting at 55kg, lost his semi-final against Spain’s Rafael Serrano Lozano by a 3-2 split decision on Saturday. Offaly’s Walsh was beaten in the 65kg quarter-final by Kazakh Aida Abikeyeva on Friday.
