Harrington into Olympic semi finals

ST MARY’S Boxing Club’s Kellie Harrington will be returning home from Tokyo an Olympic medallist after she comfortably progressed to the lightweight semi finals this morning.

This has guaranteed Harrington at least bronze at the expense of Algeria’s Imane Khelif.

Harrington proved more than adept at dealing with her tall and potentially awkward opponent, who was unable to adequately utilise her reach advantage thanks to the Dubliner’s superb footwork.

Indeed the 2018 World champion picked her shots brilliantly and was 4-1 to the good by the close of the opening round.

She won the second round on all five judges’ cards and, while occasionally sucked into battle with Khelif in the third, she was more than equipped to deal with any of the Algerian’s attempted barrages and emerged a unanimous 5-0 winner.

Delighted at seeing herself in among the medals for Ireland, an emotional Harrington told RTE: “I’m overwhelmed with emotion.

“Sometimes you think of getting here. I never think of getting medals or anything.

“Sometimes I think I’m lucky. You can’t be that lucky to be winning all these things and then end up here and have a bronze medal in my bag from the Olympic Games.

“But everything that I’ve achieved I owe it to Noel Burke who’s my club coach [at St Mary’s] at home and I owe it to these men [Ireland coaches John Conlan and Zaur Antia] and the rest of the Irish High Performance team.

“But not only this, I owe it to my team mates for all the sparring and preparation, all the support they’ve given me out here, that we give each other, it’s been fantastic.

“And the support that I’m getting from the community back home, I’m just so happy to be able to give them something to be happy about, to sing and dance for” she smiled.

The victory sets Harrington up for a semi final clash with Sudaporn Seesondee on Thursday morning after the Thai boxer emerged on the favourable side of a 3-2 split decision in her quarter final against Great Britain’s Caroline Dubois.