Harrington and O’Rourke show their class to seal places in Olympic team
KELLIE HARRINGTON’S show of emotion after she clinched her place in the Tokyo Olympics yesterday could have summed up the feelings of every athlete who has had their dreams put on hold for so long.
Harrington defeated France’s Maiva Hamadouche on a unanimous decision at the Olympic Qualifier in Paris to confirm her place in Japan later in the summer.
The Dubliner was joined shortly afterwards by Roscommon’s Aoife O’Rourke, who overcame losing the first round on all five judges’ cards to beat her Polish opponent and claim her seat on the plane.
Harrington was overwhelmed after her victory, which was understandable, both given the long delay to the Tokyo games, and also because of the reputation of her opponent.
Hamadouche is a professional and the current IBF super featherweight champion, but Harrington was undaunted and did enough throughout the fight to get the nod from all five judges. The final scores were 29-26 29-29 29-27 29-28 29-28 in favour of the 31-year-old who was the world champion in 2018.
O’Rourke made it four qualified boxers for Ireland when she defeated Elzbieta Wojik. She lost the first round but kept her composure and fought back hard to claim a victory on all five scorecards – 29-27 29-27 29-26 29-27 29-27.
Kurt Walker and Brendan Irvine, the latter losing here yesterday, are also qualified already. They could yet be joined by Emmet Brennan, who was beaten by his Croatia opponent yesterday, but has a further chance in a box-off.
Michaela Walsh also looks set to qualify, even if she loses her quarter-final today, as her world ranking should be enough to see her through to Japan.
There were defeats yesterday for Ireland’s three other boxers in action, George Bates, Kiril Afanasev and Gytis Lisinskas.