Harrington and Lehane march on at European Games

Ireland boxers Kellie Harrington and Jennifer Lehane both progressed to the quarter-finals at the European Games in Poland.

Lehane was first in action and had to dig deep to get the better of Greek fighter Antonia Filippa Giannakopoulou in their 54g bout.

The Ashbourne fighter is just one win away from securing her place at next year’s Olympic games in Paris but she had to do it the hard way against a willy opponent.

With Giannakopoulou starting strongly and briefly looking like she could overwhelm the Irish fighter, Lehane was given an early warning from the referee but recovered brilliantly after that.

Her ability to get in close to the Greek fighter, land her punches and then duck back out of the trouble set the tone for the fight and she took the opening round on four the five judges scorecards.

Giannakopoulou tried to step things up in the second round but became slightly reckless, playing into Lehane’s hands as she continued to pick her off on the counter and land with more frequency. Again the judges gave the Irish woman the nod as the end of the second.

Lehane saved her best for last, turning up the style in the third. With Giannakopoulou knowing she needed something special to turn things around, she began to look desperate and Lehane was boxing clever, keeping her opponent at distance while catching her on the counter.

There was little doubt as to who the winner would be when the final bell went and so it proved with Lehane claiming a unanimous decision.

It was a similar result for Olympic gold medalist Kellie Harrington who got the better of Elida Kocharyan in their 60kg encounter.

Harrington was the heavy favourites going into the fight and displayed the reason for that early into the first when she forced her