DURHAM boxer Georgia O’Connor is guaranteed a medal after making it through to the semi-finals at the Youth Women’s World Championships in India.

O’Connor, who was a gold medallist at the Youth Commonwealth Games earlier this year and is a former winner at The Northern Echo’s Local Heroes Awards, recorded a unanimous points victory over India’s Niharika Gonella in this afternoon’s quarter-final.

That win puts her through to the last four, with her semi-final fight scheduled for Friday, and means she is guaranteed at least a bronze medal.

O’Connor, who fights at middleweight, will take on Ya-Chu Yang in the semi-finals, with the Chinese fighter having seen off Uzbek Mavluda Movlanova in the last eight.

The North-East fighter began her World Championship campaign with an emphatic points victory over another Chinese fighter, Xueting Yu.

O’Connor’s superior technical ability quickly came to the fore in her first-round contest as she countered well with single and two-shot combinations.

By the end of the first round, she was picking off Yu at will, and the second round continued in the same pattern, with O’Connor’s straight, clinical punching proving too much for her tiring opponent.

The final round was scrappier, with both boxers holding when in close, but O’Connor’s impressive accuracy and work rate meant she was a comfortable winner.

The Northern Echo:

NORTH-EAST table tennis duo Joe Clark and Sam Kwan picked up some good wins as they represented England at the Hungarian Junior & Cadet Open.

Clark, who is from Billingham, and Kawn, who is from Middlesbrough, featured alongside James Smith in the junior boys’ team event and were unlucky to be eliminated in the group stage, despite picking up two victories out of three.

They started with a 3-1 defeat to Portugal, with Clark notching England’s victory, 3-2 (11-6, 11-8, 12-14, 10-12, 13-11) over Tiago Li in the first match.

But they bounced back to beat Poland 3-2, coming from 2-1 down as Clark won both his matches and Kwan sealed the victory 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-8) against Jan Zandecki.

Another 3-2 triumph followed against Singapore, all three boys winning one apiece and Kwan again winning the deciding tie 3-1 (7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9) against Dominic Koh.

But with three teams finishing with two match wins apiece, it was Portugal who qualified on countback.

In the junior boys’ singles, 17-year-old Clark lost to Patrik Juhasz of the host nation in his first match, but recovered to finish second in his qualifying group thanks to an emphatic 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-2) victory over Heorhi Kunats of Belarus.

He was then defeated in the first knockout round by Germany’s Felix Wetzel, going down 4-1 (11-7, 11-4, 11-13, 11-3, 11-8).

Kwan, 16, started slowly in his group, with defeats to German and Swedish opponents, but he finished with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-5) victory over Sasa Jankovic of Serbia, though it was not enough to qualify for the knockout stage.