Team Ireland have secured medal number four at the Tokyo Olympics, as Dublin boxer Kellie Harrington guaranteed herself bronze at minimum following a commanding performance in the ring this morning.
Harrington defeated Algeria’s Imane Khalif to advance to the semi-finals of the lightweight division with a unanimous decision victory.
The first round was won comfortably by Harrington with four of the five judges siding the way of the Dubliner.
An open shoelace caused her to fall in the middle of the second round, but it didn't disrupt the 31-year-old as she picked off punches on her opponent. She was awarded that round by all five of the judges.
The same case followed in round three for Harrington to book a semi-final date with Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee, who beat Britain’s Caroline Dubois. Their battle to guarantee silver will take place at 6am Irish time on Thursday.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotions. You think of getting here and I never think of getting medals. Sometimes I think I'm lucky. I can't be that lucky to be winning all these things and end up here with a bronze medal in my bag from the Olympic Games. Everything I've achieved I owe to Noel Burke, who is my club coach at home. I owe it to Zaur Antia and John Conlan and the rest of the high performance team. Not only this, I owe it to my team mates, as well, for all the sparring and the preparation and support that they've give me out here - and we give each other - it's just been fantastic.”
Elsewhere in Tokyo, it’s been a mixed morning on the track. Tuesday’s action got off to a positive start for Team Ireland with Andrew Coscoran coming in strongly in his heat to qualify for the semi-finals of the 1500m on Thursday.
WIT student Phil Healy narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals of the women’s 400m, falling 0.07 of a second outside the qualifier spots. She did make history however as the first female Irish athlete to compete at three events in the same Olympic Games.
In the men’s 200m heats, Leon Reid did just enough to scrape through - with Marcus Lawler missing out.
