Commonwealth Games: Northern Ireland's six boxing finalists must settle for silver

Northern Ireland's six boxing finalists at the Commonwealth Games in Australia have all been defeated.

Michaela Walsh suffered a second successive narrow Commonwealth Games final defeat as she was edged out in the women's featherweight final.

Her brother Aidan was also beaten in the men's welterweight final.

Brendan Irvine and Kurt Walker lost split decisions in their finals with Kristina O'Hara and Carly McNaul going down to unanimous defeats.

Michaela Walsh slumped face down on the canvas after Australia's world championship bronze medallist Skye Nicolson was given a 3-2 victory by the judges after an exceptionally cagey contest.

Punches were at a premium for the entire bout as both counter-punchers adopted a safety first approach and that left the judges with a difficult task in assessing who had won.

Walsh, 24, was convinced she had defeated England's Olympic champion Nicola Adams in the flyweight final four years ago and this latest narrow loss left the Belfast woman distraught.

Her brother Aidan later went down to a unanimous defeat by England's Pat McCormack in the welterweight decider and could have few complains about the verdict.

Lisburn bantamweight Walker was beaten on a 4-1 split decision by England's European champion Peter McGrail in his final.

McGrail bossed the first round and that set the tone for the contest even though Walker did land some good shots in the second half of the contest.

Women's light-flyweight O'Hara was defeated by legendary Indian fighter Mary Kom with McNaul losing to England's Lisa Whiteside in the flyweight decider.

O'Hara felt she had won the first and third rounds in her contest against the five-time world champion but congratulated the Indian veteran on her victory.

Irvine lost a 4-1 split decision against Indian Gaurav Solanki in an entertaining men's flyweight final.

The six boxing silver medals add to the bronze won by middleweight Steven Donnelly and lightweight James McGivern

In all, Northern Ireland have won 12 medals at the Gold Coast Games - one gold, seven silver and four bronze.

Cyclist Downey an agonising fourth in road race

Cyclist Mark Downey was an agonising fourth in the men's road race.

The Dromore man was inches away from securing bronze as he was pipped for the medal by South Africa's Clint Hendricks in a bunch sprint finish which saw Australian Steele von Hoff winning the gold from Wales' Jonathan Mould.

It was a tremendous performance by the 21-year-old as he recovered from the disappointment after crashing out the points race qualifying last Sunday.

Shooter David Calvert, who has won four gold and four bronze medals in his 40-year Commonwealth Games career, finished 12th in the full bore rifle individual final with his Northern Ireland team-mate Jack Alexander in 19th place.

Rory Hamilton and Stuart Hill were 14th and 16th in the 50m rifle event with David Henning finishing 11th in the men's trap qualification as he missed out on a place in the final.

In cycling, Lydia Boylan was 32nd in the women's road race with Eileen Burns dropping out during the race.

Castlederg 17-year-old Sommer Lecky finished 10th in the women's high jump

Athlete Emma Mitchell finished 13th in the women's 5,000m final.

In a race run in hot conditions, Mitchell was dropped from the leading group early in the race but battled well to pass a number of athletes in the closing stages including 14th-placed Scot Steph Twell.

Mitchell's time was just over 12 seconds outside her Northern Ireland record set last year.

Commonwealth Youth Games champion Sommer Lecky finished 10th in the high jump.

The Castlederg 17-year-old cleared 1.80m but exited at 1.84m which was two centimetres below her personal best set indoors on two occasions earlier this year.