Ireland’s Amy Broadhurst and Lisa O’Rourke will fight for gold medals in the Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul.
Broadhurst out-boxed India’s Parveen to claim a split-decision victory in her light welterweight semi-final.
Meanwhile, O’Rourke secured a unanimous victory over Turkey’s Sema Caliskan with a composed performance.
Both fighters are guaranteed a silver medal and a minimum prize fund of $50,000.
Olympic champion Kellie Harrington and undefeated Katie Taylor are the only previous winners of medals at the World Championships for Ireland.
Former European junior and youth champion Broadhurst, who has twice reached the quarter-finals, was the more aggressive fighter and landed some early combinations.
Parveen grew into the round but Broadhurst’s early exchanges gave her the opener across the board.
The Indian fighter edged a split second round as the 22-year-old looked to put Broadhurst under pressure with a flurry of blows, but the 25-year-old landed enough counter-punches to get two judges in her favour and put her in a strong position to reach the final.
Needing a strong final round to surge past Broadhurst, Parveen again came out strong but was frustrated by the Dundalk fighter, and a strong closing combination was enough for a 4-1 split-decision victory.
Broadhurst, who will fight for Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games this summer, will face Algeria’s Imane Khelif in Thursday’s final. Khelif defeated Chelsey Heijnen of the Netherlands by a unanimous decision.
Two bouts after Broadhurst reached the final, O’Rourke made it a double celebration for Ireland with a strong showing against home favourite Caliskan.
Using her height and reach advantage, O’Rourke was on top from the off but was adjudged to have lost out in a tight opening round 3-2 on the cards.
The second round was more aggressive from the off with both fighters trading blows, and a neat one-two combination by O’Rourke temporarily put the home fighter off her feet with 20 seconds of the round left.
The judges unanimously agreed the 20-year-old won the second round to give the Roscommon fighter the advantage heading in the final three minutes.
Needing a strong ending, Caliskan came out on the front foot but, 20-year-old O’Rourke was able to stay composed and stop the Turkish fighter from inflicting any damage.
Caliskan really pushed on in the final minute but opened up which allowed O’Rourke to land some heavy blows and secure Ireland’s second final spot.
O’Rourke will face Helena Panguane in the light middleweight decider on Thursday after the Mozambique fighter defeated Valentina Khalzova of Kazakhstan.
