Kellie Harrington breezed into the auditorium at the Barys Arena in Astana as if she was stepping into work in St Vincent’s Hospital in Fairview.
The 26-year-old has turned heads this week in world boxing for her engaging style and her ability to box against the best in the world, in what has been a seamless, transformative step up in class.
Not for the first time this week and in her first World Championship final Harrington competed impressively, although she fell 2-0 to the tough Chinese fighter Weniu Yang, who became world champion for the first time.
Harrington’s voyage to the final has been a journey of discovery, as she blossomed in each of the rounds, emerging stronger and brimming with confidence almost every day.
Each level she hit she effortlessly stepped up, taking it all in her stride, and it was just some fine margins and quality boxing from her opponent that denied her gold.
“Hello to all the patients and staff in St Vincent’s,” she said afterwards. “I’m coming home with a silver medal.”
She will also qualify for increased funding from Sport Ireland. Remarkably Harrington has achieved all her success with no State support. She has done it in the old- school amateur way.
The change will mean more time spent with the elite squad training in Blanchardstown and being able to shape her life towards the next major event, which will be the European Championships.
Colour of medal
“Please God there will be funding,” she said. “Right now I’m an athlete on no funding and I have to take time off work. It’s hard to keep going when you have no moola. Now hopefully I’ll get funding and that will change the colour of that medal I just got. That’s what it will do.”
Harrington chased the fight but she did so with fearless confidence, not quite carefree but in a breezy manner, her jab accurate and landing punishing rights. Unafraid to push forward and engage, she had the presence of mind to throw feints and try to knock Yang into error.
She trailed 10-9 on all the cards after round one, picked up one judge’s favour in round two and then another in the third round. There was no doubt both boxers were scoring, with two of the judges finally settling in favour of Wang and the third judge scoring it a draw.
“I came for a gold but I have to settle for a silver,” she said. “I was comfortable. I felt the stronger fighter. I’m going to learn from it. Still a silver medal ain’t bad first world championships. I’ve thought about it since I started boxing, so now I’m here.
Keep believing
“You have to go in there thinking you are the best, that there’s no one better than you. And I still believe that and I will keep believing that all the time. I am the best.”
Her words could sound like hyperbole, with the adrenaline of a world final still pumping through her body minutes after the fight. But there’s also truth in what she says. Some boxers stand out for the right reasons, their movement, balance and sense of understanding in the ring. Harrington has those qualities and she can punch.
She is also more than two kilos inside the 64 kg weight division, which means she can get stronger for light welter. Dropping down, also an option, would be ill-advised as it is lightweight at 60kg, Katie Taylor’s domain.
But there is regular talk of adding two more divisions for the Tokyo Olympics to bring the number for women to five compared to 10 for men. There is also the prospect of women competing in professional boxing in the World Boxing Series next year.
“The president said we would like to have more weight divisions at Tokyo 2020, and if we could have five weight divisions that would be totally amazing,” said International Boxing Association (AIBA) executive director Karim Bouzidi.
But that will be a waiting game for Harrington, who returns with silver and the future to embrace.
“She [Yang] was very similar to my own style, very, very similar. It felt like I was boxing myself in there,” she said.
“But to get to a final from being . . . a nobody . . .”
