The ease, the way Kellie Harrington made it look in becoming the first woman in Irish Olympic history to win medals at different Olympic Games was, in terms of confidence and poise, like a rinse and repeat of her first-round fight against Alessia Mesiano.
Such was Harrington’s control and domination over Paola Valdes Pana in her quarter-final bout in a North Paris Arena adorned with tricolours that the defending Olympic champion goes into her semi-final not yet having dropped a round.
“Today, I became a double Olympic medallist, that’s more history, and I’m very, very proud of myself, and I just know that I have people up there above looking down on me and they’re with me every step of the way,” said Harrington.
“I don’t feel anything, to be honest, performance-wise,” she explained about the pressure. “I’m just going out there and doing what I do. I’m not thinking about that, I’m not thinking about anything. I’m just thinking about getting up, weighing in and having my breakfast. Then after that it’s let’s go, let’s do what I do nearly every day of the week. Let’s have fun.”
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Harrington stayed in cruise mode for the entire fight, refusing to deviate from a systematic picking apart of her opponent, although the second round was bizarrely awarded 3-2 in her favour. How her Colombian opponent was given the round by two judges remains, well, curious.
But that speed bump didn’t change the way Harrington dealt with a southpaw counter-puncher. Discipline and no small degree of panache peppered the meeting with the 34-year-old working from behind a surgical left jab and taking it home over the three rounds for a final 5-0 points win and a guaranteed bronze medal.
The last image of the bout was Harrington picking her opponent off with one-point shots and swirling out of range before closing the deal and earning Ireland’s third Olympic medal in three days after Mona McSharry and Daniel Wiffen in the pool.
The medal will not be enough for the Irish lightweight, who has tried to keep her profile low this week, although when a camera is pointed at Harrington, her authentic patter is almost always headline grabbing.
“I don’t know if Mandy [her wife] is here today, I’m not too sure, but I could have swore that I heard Mandy again,” she said. “It’s crazy because there’s loads of people out there and I just hear her voice going, ‘C’mon Kellie’ and then the three coaches in the corner.
“I hear the three people who are in the corner shouting in, and the coaches actually said it was like a video game, that everything they called I did or tried to do. I just wanted to enjoy it, I wasn’t going out there thinking, ‘Oh God, I have to win every round’ because it’s not about that, it’s about enjoying it and about having fun and what will be, will be.”
Ireland has now won 38 Olympic medals since 1924, half of them have been in boxing.
Aoife O’Rourke began her Olympic journey at 75kg with the hope of earning a quarter-final medal fight when she faced Poland’s Elzbieta Wojcik. But it all took a turn for the worse for the Irish three-time European champion and second seed in a hugely messy fight.
From the off the Pole marked out how she would take on O’Rourke and came out throwing punches and tying up her Irish opponent to the extent that the referee warned her and deducted a point in the first round.
O’Rourke tried to box but was dragged into the brawling contest, which is exactly what Wojcik wanted, with the judges going with the Irish boxer 3-2 after the first round.
It didn’t change and in another scrappy round, where O’Rourke was throwing but also getting hit and pulled into close-in fighting, it was difficult to determine who was landing and who was not. The judges were more impressed with Wojcik and gave her the second round 3-2.
Alarm bells went off in the Irish corner with the bout finished with both on the ropes, the split decision falling to Wojcik 29-27, 26-30, 27-29, 28-28, 29-27.
Jude Gallagher was also thrown a tough opponent in his first fight against the tough Filipino Carlo Paalam. In his debut Olympic Games, the 22-year-old from Tyrone faced the silver medallist from Tokyo and fell to a points decision of 5-0. Gallagher did well not to be drawn in to a battle and calmly fought his own fight from behind an effective jab.
But Paalam’s punching ability and aggression showed with the judges giving the first round to him 3-2. It was a decent start for the younger boxer, who faced more of the same in the second round with Paalam, known as the Tin Can Crusher, looking to land big rights, which he did on several occasions.
When the judges scored the second round 5-0 for Palaam, it seemed heavily one-sided, but in real terms it signalled the end of the bout as competitive. Palaam tried to cruise over the finish line in the third round with the referee telling him to box. But to no avail for Gallagher.
“I thought the fight was closer than what the scorecards made it out to be, but I’ve no complaints,” said Gallagher. “I knew I was two rounds down. I had to bite down on the gumshield, put the hands up and go forward. I had good success doing, it just didn’t work out. But look I’ll be back.”
