Katie Taylor has been beaten in a shock defeat at the semi-finals of the of the European Olympic qualifiers, against Azerbaijan’s Yana Alekseevna.
The Olympic Champion started well, but Alekseevna has by far the more aggressive, and a visibly shaken Taylor knew she had a fight on her hands when the pair engaged and Alekseevna came out the best. At the end of the third round, the judges all scored in favour of Alekseevna.
Taylor will have another chance to qualify to defend her 60kg lightweight title in Rio if she qualifies in May, but she will have to dramatically improve on today’s performance if she’s to retain her gold medal in Brazil.