Irish ace must plot way past old foe as tactical battle looms

Kellie Harrington of Ireland celebrates victory over Imane Khelif of Algeria in their women's lightweight quarter-final bout at the Kokugikan Arena. Photo: Sportsfile

Sean McGoldrick

August 04 2021 02:30 AM

Olympic boxing is a relentless business. Fifty hours after becoming only the second Irish female boxer to secure an Olympic medal, Kellie Harrington will be back in the ring bidding to upgrade her bronze to silver and secure a place in Sunday’s lightweight final at the Tokyo Olympics.

At 6am tomorrow morning, the 31-year-old becomes the first Irish boxer to contest an Olympic semi-final in nine years when she faces Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee. The latter edged out British prodigy Caroline Dubois on a split 3-2 in yesterday’s quarter-final.

Irish coaches Zaur Antia and John Conlan kept an eye on the TV monitor showing the fight, as Harrington reflected on her historic achievement.

The Irish camp are already familiar with the 29-year-old Thai fighter who, like Harrington, is a southpaw which means the semi-final will be akin to a game of chess. The pair clashed in the gold medal fight at the 2018 World Championships in New Delhi. Harrington got the verdict, but it was by a razor-thin margin.

One judge scored it 30-27 in favour of Seesondee, while a second also gave the verdict to the Thai fighter. But the other three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favour of Harrington, enabling her to secure a gold medal to add to the silver she won as a light welterweight at the 2016 World Championships.

Harrington enjoys at least a two-inch height advantage over Seesondee, but this will be tight contest. One suspects the Irish camp would have preferred Dubois as an opponent, given that Harrington comfortably outpointed her in the gold medal fight at the European Olympic qualifier in Paris in June.

Seesondee was beaten by American lightweight Rashida Ellis in the quarter-final of the 2019 World Championships in Russia, which Harrington missed due to a hand injury.

At these Olympics, Ellis was on the receiving end of a unanimous 5-0 loss to Dubois. So form lines don’t count for much.

Harrington’s strength stems from her ability to implement whatever strategy coach Zaur Antia decides is best. She rarely strays from the game-plan and Antia is arguably one of the best tactical coaches in the business. As he reminded us yesterday, he has been in the corner for all of Ireland’s nine Olympic medal successes since 2008.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the draw, gold medal favourite and current world champion Beatriz Ferreira advanced to tomorrow’s semi-final with a very impressive shut-out 5-0 win over Raykhona Kodirova from Uzbekistan.

She will face 40-year Mira Potkonen in the penultimate round after the Finn edged out Turkey’s Esra Yildz on a split decision.

Potkonen, who ended Katie Taylor’s reign as Olympic champion at the Rio Games in 2016, is now guaranteed a bronze medal – her second – which is an incredible achievement given that she will celebrate her 41st birthday in November.

But all eyes will be on Kellie Harrington tomorrow as he aims to go one step closer to matching Katie Taylor’s gold medal performance in London in 2012.