Jenny Lehane one win away from securing Olympic slot after beating European champion in Bangkok

The Ashbourne primary school teacher fashioned arguably the best performance of her career to secure a unanimous 5-0 win over 2022 European bantamweight champion Anastasia Kovalchuk from Ukraine in their last 16 bout at the Olympic qualification tournament in Bangkok.

At the European Games last year in Krakow the 25-year old also came within one win of securing an Olympic slot but lost her quota fight. Now she has a second and final chance to become an Olympian when she takes on 22-year-old Hungarian Hanna Lakotar in Sunday’s quarter-final bout.

Lehane, a member of the DCU Boxing club, produced a classic southpaw boxing performance which her opponent failed to come to terms with. The Meath fighter, who didn’t lace a pair of boxing gloves until she was 20, fought beautifully off the back foot and her precision shots consistently found the target.

Kovalchuk tried to rough her up at times and pushed her over in the second round but Lehane’s slick footwork and her ability to keep her distance meant the Ukrainian was chasing shadows particularly in the first two rounds.

Lehane won the first round 4-1 and all five judges gave her the second stanza which meant she had a two-point lead on four cards going into the final three minutes.

Predictably Kovalchuk came after her in the closing three minutes and did land some telling blows which was enough to convince two of the judges to give her the round. But Lehane cruised into the last eight on scorecards of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28.

The Irish camp had an opportunity to see Kovalchuk in action when the Ukrainian squad trained in Ireland before the tournament. Kovalchuk was beaten by Ireland’s number two rated bantamweight Niamh Fay – who lost to the Ukrainian at the 2022 European championships – at the conclusion of that training camp on a show in Castlerea.

They put this knowledge to good use as Lehane, who has acknowledged in the past that she has experienced self-doubt, confidently implemented the fight plan. She looked composed and confident throughout but the job isn’t finished yet.

Although a relative late comer to boxing she had a long apprenticeship in combat sport having joined having joined River Valley Taekwondo Club in Swords in north Dublin when she was just four.

Three other Irish boxers are in action in Bangkok on Saturday. Super heavyweight Martin McDonagh meets Bulgaria’s Peter Rumenov Belberow in a last 16 contest while flyweight Daina Moorehouse will look to make it two wins from two in her last 16 clash against Guatemala’s Aylin Jamez.

Meanwhile, Aidan Walsh contests the semi-final of the 71kg box-off against Cuba’s Jorge Cuellar.