Tokyo Olympics: Irish boxer Kurt Walker stuns top seed to reach quarter-finals

Team Ireland boxer Kurt Walker is one win away from an Olympic medal after defeating Uzbekistan's world champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov in Tokyo.

The Lisburn man, 26, produced a superb display to earn a deserved 4-1 split decision over the number one seed.

"This is the highlight of my career so far," said the featherweight, who will next box USA's Duke Ragan on Sunday.

Walker's performance came after Ireland won their first medal at the Games as the women's four rowers earned bronze.

A series of brilliant combinations saw Walker, 26, boss the first round and while Mirzakhalilov attempted to fight back in round two, the Northern Irishman continued his intensity in the closing three minutes to take a 4-1 verdict from the judges as he set up a last-eight bout with USA's Duke Ragan on Sunday.

"It's indescribable. I just need to get my head level again and try and relax and recover, but I am buzzing," said Walker, whose haul of previous medals include Commonwealth Games silver in 2018 and European Games gold in 2019.

"Biggest stage in the world - beating the champion of the world - a fairytale definitely!"

American Ragan, a professional boxer with a 4-0 record, will be a tough opponent for Walker but the Irishman will believe he can go all the way after his superb win on Wednesday.

Ireland's first medal arrived on Wednesday as the women's four rowers narrowly secured the bronze ahead of Team GB who featured Belfast's Rebecca Shorten.

The quartet of Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty are the first Irish female rowers to win an Olympic medal.

Shorten and her Great Britain team-mates Karen Bennett, Rowan McKellar and Harriet Taylor occupied the bronze medal position until being overhauled by the charging Irish boat with 200 metres left.

Ireland were half a length ahead of the GB boat at the finish as Australia led from the start to take gold ahead of the Netherlands.

Shorten described Great Britain's fourth place as "absolutely gutting".

"I don't really have words. I'm just gutted we couldn't do it," said the 27-year-old.

"[But] it's one of best rows we've ever done so I think we have to hold our heads high. We've a new crew. We've only been together five months."

Lambe described Ireland's medal success as "just incredible".

"It really means a lot. In Ireland, rowing's really coming up now as a sport and it was groundbreaking in 2016 when the O'Donovan brothers got the silver medal," she added.

Also in rowing, Ireland's lightweight men's double of Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy stormed into the final, winning their semi-final in a world's best time for the event.

O'Donovan memorably won silver in the event with his brother Gary at the 2016 Games in Rio.

Banbridge rower Philip Doyle's disappointing Games ended as he and men's double sculls partner Ronan Byrne finished fourth in the B final to place 10th overall while Ireland's women's lightweight double Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen were fifth in the semi-final and will compete in the B final of their event.

Northern Ireland rower Rebecca Edwards and her GB women's eight team-mates exited from their event as they were unable to progress from the repechage.

In hockey, Ireland's women produced a battling display as they fought back from 3-0 down to trail only 3-2 against Germany as Lena Tice and Hannah McLoughlin netted penalty corners, before the Germans secured a 4-2 win.

The result leaves the Irish women with a win and two defeats from their opening three games, but one victory from their final two matches against India on Friday or Great Britain on Saturday will be enough to secure a quarter-finals spot.

"We could have rolled over in the fourth quarter and let them come in but we didn't, we fought hard and we knew goal difference is really important," said Ireland's Chloe Watkins after the hockey contest.

"The next game against India is going to be a target game, it was always going to be a big game in this group."

In the women's trap shooting qualifying competition, Team GB's Kirsty Hegarty lies 10th after three of Wednesday's five rounds and the Ballymena woman needs to move into the top six to reach the final.

However, Belfast archer Patrick Huston bowed out of the individual competition after losing his last-32 match.

Kurt Walker's boxing team-mate Aoife O'Rourke gave her absolute all against China's Rio Games bronze medallist and 2018 world champion Qian Li in the middleweight division last-16 bout but went down to a unanimous decision defeat.

In the rugby sevens competition, Ireland's campaign ended on a disappointing note as they were defeated 22-0 by Kenya in the ninth and 10th place match.

The Irish had defeated Kenya 12-7 in the group stages of the competition on Monday.

In swimming, Sligo woman Mona McSharry, after reach the 100m breaststroke final earlier this week, bettered her Irish record in the 200m event with a time of 2:25.08 but it wasn't enough to secure a semi-finals spot as she finished 20th overall.

Irish badminton player Nhat Nguyen forced number Taipei's number 10 seed Tsu-Wei Wang to a deciding game in their last-16 singles match but the Irishman lost out 21-12 18-21 21-12 to end his hopes.

In judo, Ireland's first-time Olympian Megan Fletcher suffered a last-gasp defeat in the first elimination round of the 70kg competition as she was edged out in the final three seconds by Austria's Michaela Polleres.

Irish sailors Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove are now 10th in the 49er class with eight races and the medal race left after having 12th, 11th and 13th place in Wednesday's three races while in cycling, Nicolas Roche was 28th in the men's time trial.

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