Reigning lightweight champion Kellie Harrington began her Olympic Games in the way she left off in Tokyo three years ago, full of polish and control.
Self contained and ignoring the din that greeted the boxers as they entered the North Paris Arena, there was little sign of nervous energy as she stepped into the ring for her first bout before winning all three rounds against Italy’s Alessia Mesiano.
It was Ireland’s first unanimous decision win of the week after split decisions and curious refereeing decisions had coloured the landscape.
Harrington’s last outing was a defeat to Natalia Shadrina in Belgrade at the European Championships in April of this year. But there was little in her movement or poise in her first defence of her crown to suggest there was any residual scar tissue. Before Belgrade, Harrington had put together a winning streak of 23 straight fights since the Tokyo Games.
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“I felt all right in there, I felt all right,” said Harrington afterwards. “I was trying to implement the tactics that were being given to me by the corner there. We had a good plan going in and the plan worked so, yeah, it felt good. It felt good to get going.
“It’s great to see the Irish flag being flown around the stadium there, it’s class, absolutely top class. I know Mandy [wife] and my brother’s out there somewhere, so it’s great to know that they got to come over and experience the Olympics as well as me. I think I heard Mandy saying ‘Come on Kellie’, I’m nearly sure it was her.”
Because of Harrington’s dominance and indeed boxing class, the bout was clinical and trouble free from the beginning as she instantly began to score from the bell with her left jab.
For much of the contest Mesiano tried to get in close, maybe start a brawl to level out the odds but Harrington refused to be drawn away from her game plan, keeping her distance and staying patient, content to pick off the single shot points and build her score.
The judges saw it much as the crowd did, which is not always the case, all five awarding Ireland the first round. Although Harrington was drawn into some more exchanges in the second round and Mesiano brought up the tempo and aggression knowing the match was drifting out of reach, the Irish composure never fractured.
Harrington scored wheeling backwards and stepping out of the close in action that Mesiano desired and although the Italian was more aggressive, Harrington’s footwork and precision was telling throughout.
Again, the second round went to Ireland 5-0 and by then the fight was effectively over, Harrington reverting to a more reserved jab and score to run out the final two minutes without finding herself in unwanted trouble.
Harrington was unaware that the Kazakhstan referee, Yermek Suyenish, who officiated in her bout also refereed Grainne Walsh when she was beaten by Anna Luca Hamori. Despite Hamori being warned and deducted a point in the second round for holding Walsh, she continued to smother the Irish fighter without further sanction.
“I hadn’t got a clue,” said Harrington. “These are things we don’t need to know as athletes. We just need to get in, perform and show what we can do.”
Harrington is seeking to become the first Irish boxer male or female to win back-to-back Olympic boxing titles. Nicola Adams for Britain and Clarissa Shields for the US, under Irish coach Billy Walsh, have both successfully defended their gold medals. Adams won the title in London 2012 and Rio 2016 in the flyweight division, while Shields, who fights professionally now, won the middleweight division gold medals at the same two Olympics.
Harrington’s next bout takes place on Wednesday afternoon, when Jude Gallagher also meets Carlo Paalam from the Philippines at 57kg and current European middleweight champion Aoife O’Rourke faces Poland’s Elzbieta in the 75kg division.
