Twenty-four hours ahead of her 28th birthday Michaela Walsh has secured the perfect gift.
The Belfast featherweight had a comfortable 4-1 win over European and EU bronze medallist Mona Mestiaen in her opening bout at the Olympic qualifier in Paris. The victory all but assures her of an Olympic slot regardless of how she fares in the quarter-final.
The shock defeat of top-seeded Russian Liudmila Vorontsova to Italian Irma Testa opens the way for Walsh to qualify through the ranking system even if she were to lose in her next fight to Testa and get beaten in a box-off.
The final ranking list won’t be compiled until the tournament is completed but the defeat of the Russian looks like Walsh has all but secured her spot in Tokyo.
Again, there was an inexplicable call by one judge who scored the fight 29-28 in favour of Mestiaen. Granted, Walsh took her foot off the pedal in the third round but still looked in control and this was reflected in the scorecards of the other four judges who all scored the contest 30-27 in favour of the Irish fighter.
Meanwhile, 2018 World champion Kellie Harrington had a unanimous 5-0 win over Poland Aneta Rygielska. The Pole who lost to Harrington at the Strandja tournament in Sofia last February had a decent opening minute but once the Irish lightweight switched to a southpaw stance she controlled the contest.
Harrington faces her moment of truth tomorrow night when she current IBF super featherweight pro champion Maiva Hamadouche of France. She was involved in the fight of the session against Croatian Marija Malenica.
Harrington has to win as her back door route was cut-off due to the defeat of the number one seed and Rio bronze medallist Mika Potkenen – who beat Katie Taylor at the 2016 Games – by rising British star Caroline Dubois.