History. And an end. And Kellie Harrington did it her way.
The record books will show that she retained her Olympic lightweight title with a win against Yang Wenlu, and on the back of three, sublime performances against opposition from Italy, Colombia and Brazil, but the beauty of it is more in the breaths taken outside the ropes. Her final was the only one held at the home of French tennis on Tuesday night. It was also the first of boxing’s deciders at these Olympic Games.
The first and the only. Both seem right for a woman who has been out on her own in many ways here in France. Part of a biggest ever ten-strong Irish team, she was the only one to stay standing through the rank decisions, the poor refereeing, the tough opponents and the ostracization of this competition’s early rounds out in the sticks under a Charles de Gaulle airport flightpath.
She had explained long before this about how her first gold medal was won for everyone else, and that this one was for her. It was her wife Mandy who had put that in her head. She liked it and she ran with it, and took it to extremes through this last two weeks.
She begged interviewers and colleagues not to tell her the identity of her next opponent after a win. She didn’t care about the fact that this final would be played out in such august surroundings. She put the head down and stuck the bristles out.
Hedgehog mode. And now, in what she says was to be her last ever time in an international ring, Harrington has become the.