St Mary’s boxer Kellie secures gold at European Games

KELLIE Harrington can now add European Games Champion to her prestigious list of accolades following her gold medal win at the European Games at the Nowy Targ Arena.

A member of St Mary’s boxing cub in Tallaght, Harrington was a silver medallist at the 2019 edition of the Games in Minsk.

A slow start saw Harrington down 3-2 at the end of the first round to Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina.

Afterwards Harrington said; “In the first round, I’m not going to say I was asleep, but I was in sparring mode let’s say seeing what she was going to bring, and I sussed it out that she was jumping in more shots, so I came back and it was a 3-2, and I knew I had to go back out and put a little bit of a push on, but without pushing forward silly and getting caught because that is what she would want, so that’s what I done.”

That push from the Dubliner in rounds two and three saw the Olympic and World Champion show her class dominating the ring to take both 5-0 for an unanimous decision win; “When I came back in the second round, I did that; I got a push on.

When I came back to the corner (after the second round), obviously the coaches get the score, but I really didn’t need the score off the coaches because I could hear all the Irish fans in the stands screaming.

I knew I was up then because I could hear the fans.

The Irish fans are the best fans in the world’.

Reflecting on the final Harrington said; “I wouldn’t say it was a domination or anything; it was more smart tactical.

I wasn’t going in there looking to knock anyone out or anything but I just needed to win a chess match really and that’s what it was.

She was trying to jump in and I was just check hooking her when she was jumping in.

She wanted me to stand toe to toe with her.

She continued; “That was my second time fighting her, and the first time the whole three rounds were toe to toe, there was no boxing in it; it was actually a great fight that time, it was class.

“Today was much more like a chess match.

“A fight is a fight, a win is a win, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and that’s it, I done what I needed to do; I got over the line and I have my qualification for Paris, and I’m happy out now.”

This week we have seen some of Harrington’s best boxing, the 33-year-old has found a renewed love for the sport; “The love was always there, I lost it a little bit and found it again.

“I’m sure I’m going to lose it again between now and Paris, it’s a love/hate relationship, sometimes mostly hate, but we always find the love to keep us going.”

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