SPORTS
Rising star Alexiusson inconsolable after defeat
![Rising star Alexiusson inconsolable after defeat](/files/2015/2/1200x630/14348105523114724428_1200x630.jpg)
Baku, June 20, AZERTAC
Sweden's rising boxing star Agnes Alexiusson suffered an unexpected round-of-16 defeat after a unanimous points decision went to Italian Valentina Alberti in their light-welterweight (60-64kg) division match-up.
The 19-year-old, who has won numerous major titles at youth level and recently pushed the incomparable Katie Taylor close, reacted with understandable disappointment.
The shake of her head said everything about what she thought of the verdict and she was inconsolable afterwards, refusing to talk to the media and still in tears 30 minutes after the fight.
And her mood will not have improved when, a short while later, Russian Anastasiia Beliakova, whom she beat at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics, advanced to the quarter-finals with a unanimous points win against Martina Schmoranzova from the Czech Republic.
Even more impressive at the same weight was Britain's Sandy Ryan, who gave Cindy Rogge of Germany a lesson in the finer points of the sport, jabbing her way to a clear-cut win.
Ryan, a world championship silver medallist, learned her craft sparring and training with her brother, the Commonwealth Games champion Dave Ryan, and other men at her gym.
Ireland's Michaela Walsh is fighting temporarily at bantamweight and could have no complaints about losing to Elena Savaleva, the Russian who was first woman to win an Olympic boxing match at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Walsh is already looking to the future and a revenge meeting with Great Britain's Nicola Adams, who beat her in the final of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games flyweight (48-51kg) division.
The Irish boxer confirmed she will drop back down to flyweight for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and, asked about her prospects against Adams, said: "I will beat her. One hundred per cent."