Euro Elites | Gold for O’Rourke; 4 medals for Ireland.

Team Ireland’s Aoife O’Rourke has been crowned 75kg champion of Europe with a resounding win over Turkey’s Büşra Işıldar in a highly physical contest full of pace and power.

Isildar is a multiple World and European medalist but couldn’t best the double Olympian, who claimed the victory 5-0. Judges scored the bout 30:27; 30:27; 30:27; 30:26; 29:28.

This is Aoife’s fourth confederation level title (2019, 2022 & 2024), in addition to her 2023 European Games gold. Aoife’s journey to the top of the podium has included wins over 80+kg World Champion, Poland’s Agata Kaczmarska and Russia’s 2025 World Champion, Saltanat Medenova.

Speaking to Boxing Ireland’s Grainne Walsh at ringside, Aoife said “We all want to get in and we want to perform and reach this final stage, but to actually have it happen again for my fifth time including the European Games, I honestly can’t believe it right now. It’s really special, and I’m just looking forward to enjoying the moment,” Aoife addes “You can’t be looking too far ahead and get distracted by other things. We only have this moment here now, and there’s no point worrying about the future. It’s not going to get you anywhere and cause you a headache. I’m trying to be a lot more present, and the same for my boxing. When I’m in the ring, I’m in the ring and I’m in boxing mode.’

And of her sister, Lisa, who won 80kg gold yesterday, she said “We’re riding the waves right now, but we will look back when we’re older and reflect on such special memories that we had together, and it goes down in history like being sisters on the same team. I’ve seen Lisa through all her injuries, and to finish on top of the podium last night, nobody deserves it more. She put in so much hard work behind the scenes to get to this moment.”

Aoife was also awarded the 2nd place Best Female Boxer of the tournament accolade. Team Ireland’s Michaela Walsh and Jon McConnell collected their respective 57kg and 70kg bronze medals today, and overall, Ireland finished joint 4th in the medals table, out of 43 federations.

Daina Moorehouse, Kellie McLoughlin, Evelyn Igharo, Dean Clancy and Jon McConnell lost to the eventual silver medalists in their weights; while Michaela Walsh exited to the champion. The complete results are here

EEC Head Coach and Interim High Performance Head Coach, Damian Kennedy, has been reflecting on the tournament and said “Its been a brilliant tournament. On another day, we could have been coming home with a bigger medal tally. Jude Gallagher, for example, his performance was on a knife-edge. Daina Moorehouse – on a knife edge. Shannon Sweeney, again, a very close contest. Performances? Absolutely outstanding. We started off at the beginning of the year talking about exposure, international exposure. We got that, albeit not a lot of medals coming home from Brazil or China. We had success in Strandja and we knew the next two tournaments were going to be tough task. This was always the target. They’ve all excelled. They’ve given us everything”

Damian adds “You can see from the performances, the intensity of our boxing has change. The volume we approach the contest with has changed. Mix that along with accuracy, and we’re in a great place going forward” Listen to Damian’s interview, in full, here

High Performance Director and EEC Team Leader Jon Mackey said “I want to pay credit to Paddy Sharkey of Castlerea Boxing Club, the club where Aoife and Lisa feel in love with boxing and why they’re here with us this week” He adds “We did well, we got off to a good start. I think we can do better, as a team. I think we didn’t fully achieve our potential, this championships. We’re happy with what we’re going home with, but I think we can do better. When we go home, we’ll review and reflect, but I think we’ll aim to do better next year. We’ve a bit to a bit to go in terms of achieving our potential behind the scenes”

And Jon has paid tribute to his backroom team “We’ve got a great staff working behind the scenes. I want to pay great credit to Damian Kennedy, our interim Head Coach, who has led an incredible staff of coaches here at the European Championships. We’ve a huge staff back home, we’ve got the very best in Sport Science and Medical experts working with our programme back in the Sport Ireland Institute, so I want to say thanks to them – Dr. Sharon Madigan, Paul Carragher, Paul Ahern” Listen to Jon’s interview, in full, here