The European Games drew to a close in Krakow last night with Irish gold medal winning kickboxer, Amy Wall, serving as the Permanent TSB Flagbearer at the ceremony.
After thirteen days of competition which saw 121 Irish athletes across 17 sports compete for Team Ireland, the majority of the team will return to Dublin Airport this evening.
Ireland secured a total of 13 medals across five sports; five in boxing, five in kickboxing, one each in athletics, rugby and taekwondo respectively.
The Krakow Games served as an Olympic qualifying event for several sports, with athletes in rugby and boxing securing spots in next year’s Olympic Games. The Men’s Rugby Sevens team won their tournament, and the only Olympic berth on offer at the competition.
Boxers Kellie Harrington, Aoife O’Rourke, Michaela Walsh, Dean Clancy and Jack Marley also won their boxing qualifiers, booking a spot in Paris next year.
On her twenty-sixth birthday Roscommon’s Aoife O’Rourke became the second Irish boxer to win gold at the Games, after team mate Kellie Harrington’s success on Saturday. O’Rourke, who boxes out of Olympic BC in Galway, impressed to win on a unanimous decision 5-0 over her French counterpart.
Harrington speaking after her win said “I wasn’t going in there looking to knock anyone out or anything but I just needed to win a chess match really and that’s what it was. She was trying to jump in and I was just check hooking her when she was jumping in. She wanted me to stand toe to toe with her.
“That was my second time fighting her, and the first time the whole three rounds were toe to toe, there was no boxing in it; it was actually a great fight that time, it was class. Today was much more like a chess match. A fight is a fight, a win is a win, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and that’s it, I done what I needed to do; I got over the line and I have my qualification for Paris, and I’m happy out now.”
Bray’s Amy Wall becomes the first Irish kickboxer to win a European Games gold medal after she won the decider in the 60kg Full Contact Class.
At this point, the number of Team Ireland athletes set to compete in Paris 2024 now sits at 37, including the Women’s Rugby Sevens team, and in equestrian, both the eventing team and show-jumping teams have qualified.
