Ireland’s Kellie Harrington set for repeat gold medal chance

Ireland’s Kellie Harrington will fight for gold again on Tuesday in Paris.

Ireland’s Kellie Harrington will look to win a second straight boxing gold medal on Tuesday from Paris, facing China’s Yang Wenlu in the final bout of the women’s 60kg (lightweight) competition.

Yang defeated Wu Shi-yi of Chinese Taipei in Saturday’s first session final bout, sweeping the cards at 30-27 five times and keeping her unbeaten streak against Wu alive in the process.

A few hours later, Harrington once again faced her great rival, Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, to close the second session. The two met in the gold medal match in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics, with Harrington coming out on top.

Three years later, Harrington remains a top amateur and Ferreira has won the IBF lightweight championship as a professional. But the Irish star was again the better fighter, taking a 4-1 win over the Brazilian. The two embraced after it was over like proper sporting rivals.

Though Olympic seeding is convoluted and doesn’t really mean all that much a lot of the time, it is worth noting that the 33-year-old Yang is the top seed in the bracket and an experienced, high-level amateur, certainly no pushover matchup for the 34-year-old Harrington, but Harrington deserves to be the clear favorite, because she’s still boxing at a very high level.

Harrington vs Yang will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 6, starting at 5:06 pm ET.