Harrington reaches Olympic Games decider

KELLIE Harrington of St Mary’s Boxing Club in Tallaght will be fighting for an Olympic gold medal on Sunday after successfully navigating her way through an enthralling lightweight semi final against Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee in Tokyo this morning.

Emerging victorious on a 3-2 split decision in what was a repeat of the 2018 World Championship decider that Harrington won, the Dubliner will now get the opportunity to compete for the top step on the Olympic podium against Brazil’s hard-hitting Beatriz Ferreira.

It was a most tentative start by Harrington and her opponent with referee Hichem Menchaoui having to twice step in during the opening round to instruct both boxers to engage more.

But when they did, it was Harrington’s left that landed more often than not and served to edge her narrowly ahead by the close of that round, three of the five judges ruling in her favour.

But Seesondee grew more into the contest, landing several right hands as Harrington made a somewhat slow start to the second round.

Still the St Mary’s boxer regained some ground when she again opted to employ the left hand more throughout the closing 30 seconds of the round, leaving her ahead on the cards of two judges, down on one and tied on two heading into the final stanza.

With the fight still very much hanging in the balance, Harrington maintained her composure and continued connecting with her long looping left to ultimately take the fight on a split.

Speaking to RTE after the nailbiting contest, a delighted Harrington said “I boxed Sudaporn in 2018 in the World Final and it was a 3-2 split decision, it was a very close decision back then. It was a chess match back then and it was a chess match today again.

“She’s a fantastic operator. She has a really strong left hand, so I was trying not to get hit with that and was trying to stay away from that.

“I was trying to tease her on like my club coach [Noel Burke of St Mary’s BC] said, like my High Performance coaches said, just make her throw and then counter.

“I felt a little bit more comfortable towards the end, standing instead of running. It was fantastic, just brilliant really” she smiled.

Regarding the upcoming Olympic final she can now look forward to against Ferreira, the Dubliner added “It’s going to be a massive fight. It will be what it will be. It will be exciting and I’m looking forward to it.

“I’ll speak with my coaches about it, I’ll speak with Noel Burke about it and we’ll come up with a plan all together and we’ll start to work on that.”

Delighted at ensuring Ireland will have some medal interest on the closing day of the Olympic Games Harrington added “As my brother says, the last mile is never crowded and that’s the way it just feels sometimes.

“It does feel very lonely, but I suppose that’s the difference, to be able to hold on in there and keep it going.

“If I had won here today or not I would have told them [the Irish people] to keep smiling because it’s still an incredible journey. I’m just happy to be able to lift all the people. It’s just great.”