Kellie Harrington became the first Irish women to win medals at two Olympic Games after a unanimous decision win over the unseeded Colombian Angie Paola Valdes Pana in the Paris Arena on Wednesday night. Harrington, defending the lightweight Olympic title she won in Tokyo, won all three rounds for a 5-0 points win to secure at least a bronze medal.
No other Irish women in the last 100 years, since Ireland has competed as an independent nation in 1924 has won more than one Olympic medal in different Olympic Games including athlete Sonia O’Sullivan, sailor Analise Murphy and boxer Katie Taylor.
Harrington stepped into the history books with a 30-27,30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 score on the judges’ cards after an almost carefree three rounds.
It was another controlled outing from the reigning champion against a southpaw counter-puncher, who wanted Harrington to come on to her with aggression. But disciplined and fully in control Harrington remained at a distance, working behind her jab to earn a 5-0 win in the first round.
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The second seemed to be going the same way, Harrington controlling the tempo and her Colombian opponent trying to land some big shots. She got through with one or two but the 3-2 round awarded by the five judges in Harrington’s favour seemed like an extremely generous result for Valdes Pana.
Still the Irish lightweight was not deterred and continued in the same vein, showing good movement and measured amounts of aggression as her opponent became more desperate. In the end there was no dispute, Harrington a clearcut winner, a bronze medallist and into the semi-final stage, which takes place on Saturday night.
She won’t find out her opponent until after 9pm on Wednesday night when Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, who Harrington beat in the Tokyo gold medal bout, takes on Chelsey Heijnen of the Netherlands in the last of the quarter-finals.
“I felt relaxed going in there. I listened to what the coaches were telling me and it was working,” Harrington told RTÉ in her ringside interview.
“I enjoyed it in there. These are the times I need to be enjoying because the boots will be getting hung up soon.
“I’ll actually do a couple more National Championships but internationally, I think I’ll be finished. I don’t know, but at 60 kgs definitely.”
Ahead of a possible rematch with Ferreira in the semi-finals, Harrington was keen to point out that there are no easy fights in an Olympic boxing tournament.
“Let me tell you something here and now right, every person in these Games, in the Olympic Games, is a brilliant opponent. There is no easy fights here,” she said.
“There is no easy contests here, they’re all hard. Nobody gets to an Olympic Games without being at the absolute top of their game.”
On being now guaranteed a second Olympic medal, Harrington finished on a lighter note: “I don’t know yet [how the bronze medal feels], because I haven’t really had time to think about it.
“My brother texted me the other day and said, ‘If 14-year-old Kellie Harrington had thought she’d be here now ... she probably never would have believed it.’
“I copied and sent the message to my mam ... she said, ‘No, you’re right, you were a little shit back then! Still a little shit now but you have two Olympic medals!’”
