Kellie Harrington among four Irish boxers to secure medals at European Championships in Belgrade

Kellie Harrington, Aoife O’Rourke, Shannon Sweeney, and Niamh Fay guaranteed themselves bronze medals at worst.

The only disappointment came when Lisa O’Rourke went down by the narrowest of margins in her welterweight quarter-final.

Olympic lightweight champion Kellie Harrington advanced to Saturday’s semi-final with a 5-2 split decision win over Turkey’s Ozer Gizem.

The contest was not as close as decision suggests, even if Harrington looked somewhat sluggish in round one in her first outing at the championships. However, she still get the verdict on three of the judges’ cards.

She upped the tempo considerably in round 2, forcing the Turk to take a standing count. Harrington took the round 10/9 on all five judges’ card, which critically gave her a two-point lead on three of their cards going into the final stanza.

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 23rd April

She eased off slightly and two of the judges gave the round to the Turk. Under new regulations introduced by the International Boxing Association (IBA), bouts which are decided on a split 3-2 decision are referred for review to two other officials who score the fight live.

Both observers gave the nod to Harrington – thus the 5-2 verdict – which guarantees the defending European champion a bronze medal at worst.

Castlerea native Aoife O’Rourke remained on course for a third successive European middleweight title with a decisive 5-0 win over Hungarian Veronika Nakota.

O’Rourke, who also won a gold medal at the European Games in Poland last year where she qualified for her second Olympics, was completely on top.

One judge gave the final round to Nakota – otherwise it was a shut-out success for the 26-year old who will be in semi-final action on Thursday.

There was no joy, however, for her younger sister Lisa who was competing as a welterweight for the first time at championship level.

There was no lack of aggression from the Castlerea fighter, but the judges preferred the accuracy of Jessica Triebelova (Slovakia) in the first round and she took the stanza 10-9 across the board.

O’Rourke was more composed and landed more scoring punches in round two and won the stanza on four of the judges’ card, which meant the contest went down to the final three minutes of action.

There was little to separate the pair and O’Rourke again looked the more aggressive. Indeed, she got the nod from three of the judges, giving her a 3-2 win, but under the new regulations the fight went to review and both evaluators opted for her opponent, which meant O’Rourke lost out 4-3.

Earlier, Mayo’s Shannon Sweeney, who boxes out of the St Anne’s club in Westport, landed her second European bronze medal when she fashioned a unanimous 5-0 win over Spain’s Laura Fuertes Fernandez, the number one seed in the 50kg class the quarter-final.

Sweeney will aim to upgrade to silver in Friday’s semi-finals. She has been in top form in Belgrade beating a Russian fighter in her last-16 contest.

Niamh Fay also guaranteed herself a bronze medal.

A member of the Phoenix of Ballyboughal club in north county Dublin, she received a walk-over in 54kg bantamweight quarter-final in which she was scheduled to meet second seed Stanmira Petrova. The Bulgarian was forced to pull out due to injury.

Fay, who beat a Russian opponent in their first outing in Belgrade, will box in the semi-finals on Friday. She is now a three-time European medallist having previously won gold at youth and Under-22 level.