BY Jonny Stapleton

KATIE Taylor brought the country to a stand still as she made her Olympic debut at  2:35 today, but had the Nation on it’s feet celebrating minutes later by ensuring at least a bronze medal with victory over Natasha Jonas.

Taylor proved why she is the poster girl of world female boxing dismantling Team GB favourite to claim Ireland and the Irish boxing team’s second London 2012 medal.

The Bray BC star dominated from start to finish and eventually ran out comfortable winner 26-15.
There were pre fight worries Jonas would benefit from fighting in her home country, but Taylor might as well have been in a ring in the Point Theatre or National Stadium with the amount of Irish support in the ExCel Arena.
Whilst the Irish flag and female boxing standard bearer  was out punching the Britton the substantial Irish support were out singing their British counterparts and cheering Taylor to success.
The four time world gold medallist and five time European champion has finally added an Olympic medal to her illustrious list of honours, and fittingly so considering she is the reason female boxing is in the Games.

However, Taylor will feel a Gold rather than Bronze medal will look better on her mantle piece and will be hoping to book her place in the final when she will take on Manzuna Chorieva of Tajikistan, who beat China’s Cheng Dong 13-8 in their quarter-final.
Taylor started the bout impressively dancing around the ring to the tune of Ole Ole and opening up a 5-2 advantage.
Jonas to her credit came out battling in the second stanza while Taylor stood her ground too much, as a result the former Liverpool ladies footballer and cousin to Collen Roney scored a 5-5 draw in that round leaving it 10-7 to Taylor going into the third.

Knowing that the fight was at a crossroads, Taylor came out full of purpose and immediately had Jonas on the back foot. Two stinging right hooks pressed home her advantage and a third right caught Jonas flush and forced her into a standing count. Taylor, 26, took the round  9-4 and 19-11 clear going into the last.
Like the mens bouts this bout was over at the end of the third round due to the sizeable advantage, but the fighters had another two minutes to play out and Taylor got a chance to further display her unique talents. Full of purpose, power and panache one of Ireland’s greatest ever punchers closed out the fight and secured a bronze medal for her country.