Offaly's Gráinne fights again on Saturday evening as Olympic bid continues
Gráinne Walsh dug deep to record a memorable win in her first Olympic qualification bout earlier today (Friday), but she won't have much time to reflect on that success.
She now moves on to the round of 16 stage at the qualification tournament in Italy, where she will face another challenging opponent in the form of Kenya's Friza Anyango Asiko.
Walsh's bout with Asiko will take place during the evening session of the tournament tomorrow (Saturday), and will be streamed on olympics.com.
The evening action at the tournament gets underway at 6pm, Irish time, with Walsh's contest expected at around 6.45pm..
The winner on Saturday will go through to the quarter finals, on Monday afternoon, and a win at the quarter final stage is enough to guarantee a place at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
In her bout today, the 28-year-old Tullamore woman battled back, after losing the first round on four of the five judges' scorecards, to deservedly defeat Germany's European Elite and U22 champion Stefanie Von Berge.
There appeared to be very little separating the two boxers in the opening round, so when four of the judges scored it in favour of Von Berge, Walsh's Olympic hopes were in serious jeopardy.
A brilliant second round from the Offaly woman, in which she took the fight to Von Berge and rattled off some excellent combination punches, put her back in contention on the judges' cards.
It then came down to a hard-fought final round in which Walsh would not be denied, showing tremendous resolve once again to land some big punches.
As the decision was being announced, both boxers had an arm up, ready to celebrate, but the verdict was in Walsh's favour on a 3-2 split.
Speaking to Irish News reporter Neil Loughran afterwards, Walsh said she felt "so many emotions" around today's bout.
"A year ago, I would have done anything to be in this position, so that's what I have to remind myself, even when I'm nervous walking out.
"This is what I wanted, so when you get what you want you have to face up to it.
"I'm just delighted that I could put on a good performance today. I had God in my corner, and the support of my family and friends," she said.