Aoife O'Rourke celebrated her 26th Birthday in style by defeating Davina-Myrha Michel 5-0 to take home the gold medal in the 75Kg division at the European Games in Krakow.
The Birthday girl led after a frantic opening round that saw both fighters come out swinging for the fences. The Roscommon native landed the more telling punches including a couple of powerful overhand rights that stopped her French opponent in her tracks to give her the opening round on all five judge's cards.
The second continued in a similar vein with O'Rourke quicker to the punch. Frustrated by her lack of success, Michel, who won bronze at last year's World Championship, resorted to holding and was warned on a couple of occasions by the referee.
READ MORE: Kellie Harrington wins gold at European Games in Poland as she beats Natalia Shadrina in final
As she had the gold medal all but secured after the opening two stanzas, O'Rourke navigated the last three minutes in style to pick up the victory as the Irish in attendance at the Nowy Targ Arena chanted 'Olé, Olé.'
"I'm absolutely delighted. I'm just over the moon, I can't believe it.
"Coming out here the plan was to qualify (for the Olympics), but to end up with the gold medal is just icing on the cake.
"It was kind of a different style than people would have seen me boxing all week. It's great to see that I can mix it up, that I can get in with a girl like that and actually box. I'm delighted to get the result."
Heading into the final, the two-time European gold medalist was confident that she had what it took to take home the win.
"Of course you have to have confidence in yourself. If you don't then you can't expect other people to.
"You have the training done and the hard work is put in, so why wouldn't you be confident? The coaches got the tactics spot on, so thanks to them."
It had already been a fantastic week for the Tokyo Olympian, who secured qualification for next year's Olympic Games courtesy of her come from behind win over Elzbieta Wojcik on Friday.
O'Rourke became the second Irish boxer to win gold at this year's European Games with 2021 Olympic hero Kellie Harrington taking home the top prize in the lightweight division on Saturday.
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