GOLDEN GIRL
Champ Kellie will keep feet on the ground
KELLIE Harrington insists that being an Olympic champion won’t define her after a heroic performance in Tokyo yesterday saw her become the third Irish boxer after Michael Carruth and Katie Taylor to win a gold medal.
The 31-year-old Dubliner’s exceptional display of ring smarts saw her out-box Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira in a wonderful lightweight final but she says that she will be back at work at St Vincent’s Hospital in Fairview as soon as possible.
‘I’m an Olympic champion, but it doesn’t define me as a person,’ she said.
‘I’ll be home and I’d say it will be a bit mental, but I will be going back to work, either in two or three weeks.
‘I’ll be back to work and doing my normal thing and that keeps me grounded.
‘My circle is small and it will be staying very small,’ she insisted, accepting there will be probably be a small party in the ward where she works in the hospital.
‘I just want to keep doing what I am doing. There’s nothing going to change from here out,
I’m not going to be thinking I’m something I’m not. I’ll just continue to be this way apart from having the gold medal and that’s it. I am not going to change.’ Harrington had to dig deep and come from behind against the teak-tough Brazilian, who narrowly won the first round. But she says that she wasn’t concerned by that. ‘No, there’s no point in being concerned because if you get concerned, you go out and start making mistakes, rushing things and get caught. My opponent was absolutely fantastic. A great counter-puncher, very strong and you have to keep calm and composed and fight your fight, not someone else’s. That’s the key to performance.’ Harrington became Olympic champion 29 years to the day when Carruth won Ireland’s first boxing gold in Barcelona and he was one of the first to congratulate the latest champion, predicting an upsurge in young kids joining boxing clubs because they were inspired by Harrington. ‘What she did was unbelievable,’ Carruth said. ‘It has been clear in the past two weeks that anyone who loses the first round tends to go on and lose the fight. I was a bit worried after she lost that round 3-2, but she came back and boxed superbly in the second round, boxed beautifully in the third round. ‘She showed her class and what she is all about. To come back from losing the first round to win by unanimous decision is an absolutely unbelievable achievement.’ Carruth says that he hopes the sport will receive better funding now given the expected rise in numbers at boxing club and that the seven-strong boxing team are coming home with two medals, a gold and Aidan Walsh’s bronze. As well as that, four of the other Irish boxers were defeated by eventual medalists. Meanwhile, Raimundo Ferreira, former Brazilian champion and father to Harrington’s opponent, has blasted the scoring of the bout. ‘In my 44 years of boxing experience, I think Bia took the first two rounds. In the third, it was a more balanced fight. It’s an injustice, a lack of respect.’ However, his daughter was more willing to accept the result in the mixed zone, saying she performed well but didn’t get the gold. The pair may renew their rivalry at this year’s world championships, which will be held in Belgrade in October.
“She showed her class and what she is
all about”