KELLIE HARRINGTON is one fight away from a second Olympic medal after an impressive win over Alessia Mesiano.
Harrington had lost in the semi-finals of the European Championships to Russia’s Natalia Shadrina in April.
Ironically the Italian had been her opponent the last time she had been beaten – to Shadrina’s compatriot Nune Astrayan in Bulgaria – in February 2021.
And, as she had in the University of Ulster in April 2021, Harrington claimed a unanimous decision against Mesiano and claimed she had not been concerned after her recent setback.
Harrington said: “None, none. You have to fall to get back up.
“If you didn’t get back up you may as well stay down.
“It’s only a loss if you don’t learn from it and hopefully I learned from it.
“It’s always good to get a win, just happy to be here and get out and compete.
“I felt alright in there, I felt alright, I was trying to implement the tactics that were being given to me by the corner there.
“We had a good plan going in and the plan worked so, yeah, it felt good.
“It felt good to get going.
“I fought her in Belfast, it was a very pressured fight and a very pressured situation, the ring must have been smaller, I don’t know.
“Alessia is a really great fighter, you have to give respect to her.”
Yermerk Suiyenish, who had been the referee for Gráinne Walsh’s defeat to Anna Luca Hamori – when the Hungarian spoiled throughout but had only one point deducted – was the man in the middle again.
But Harrington said: “I hadn’t gotten a clue, these are things we don’t need to know as athletes.
“We just need to get in, perform and show what we can do.”
And she did just that. Whilst the loud Italian crowd in the Paris Nord Arena booed the awarding of the first round to Harrington by all five judges, Harrington was in control from start to finish.
Having won gold in front of no spectators in Tokyo, here she had her wife Mandy and brother Joe amongst those cheering for her.
Harrington said: “I didn’t look up into the crowd until afterwards, they’re distractions I don’t need when I walk into the ring.
“But it’s great to have people out there cheering me and great to see the Irish flag floating around the stadium there, it’s absolutely class.
“I know Mandy and my brother’s out there somewhere so it’s great to know that they got to come over and experience the Olympics as well as me.
“I think I heard Mandy saying ‘Come on Kellie’, I’m nearly sure it was her.”
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Harrington will be back out on Wednesday against either sixth seed Angie Paola Valdes Pana of Colombia or Kosovo’s Donjeta Sadiku who meet this evening.
After Jack Marley, she was the second Irish fighter to win after Dean Clancy, Aidan Walsh, and Gráinne Walsh were all beaten.
Jenny Lehane is next in the ring against China’s Yuan Chang on Tuesday morning.
And Harrington said: “I just want also say, before we head off, congratulations and best of luck to the rest of our team.
“Our team has put in so much work to get out here, every single one of them bit down and dug deep, and they will continue to do that in the tournament.
“We have a great team coming through and they’ll keep going.”
And Lehane – who has put her primary school teacher’s job on hold to fulfil her Olympic ambitions – is out to make her mark.
The Meath woman said: “I’ve gone through the past few years thinking I’d love to do this, or hopefully I can get to Paris.
“But now the imposter syndrome has gone out the window.
“I feel like I belong up here.
“I’m going into these Games to soak it all up and to enjoy the experience.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t be giving it 100 per cent to get through the fights and hopefully bring home a medal.
“I’m relaxed and I’m excited at the same time.”