Lisa O'Rourke reaches gold medal bout at World Championships

14 Mar 2025, 19:45 by The 42 · The42

LAST UPDATE | 7 hrs ago

IRELAND’S LISA O’ROURKE has won her semi-final at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in Niš, Serbia.

O’Rourke, 22, beat Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova in the 70kg division. The 2022 World Champion made it through on a split decision.

All five judges gave the first round to No 2 seed Bogdanova. A superb right had at the end of round two turned the bout O’Rourke’s way. The Rosommon fighter convinced three of the judges to give her the second round, and she edged a frenetic final round to advance to Sunday’s gold medal bout against Elena Gapeshina of Russia.

Three judges scored it 29-28 to O’Rourke, one scoring 29-28 to her opponent and the last 30-27.

Earlier O’Rourke’s sister Aoife won her semi-final on a unanimous decision over Nikolina Gajic of Serbia. The 27-year-old double Olympian was competing in the 75kg category.

Both sisters from Castlerea are now guaranteed a silver medal, at least.