Gavin Cooney reports from Paris North Arena

AND SO THERE was never any need to worry.

That figures, given it was Kellie Harrington who told us Hakuna Matata back in Tokyo.

But after a bumpy opening couple of days for the Irish boxing team, some of the general queasy feeling seeped into pre-fight judgements of Harrington. Sure, Harrington is the reigning champion who then went on a 23-fight unbeaten streak after Tokyo, but she lost at the European Championships in April to a Serbian fighter whom she had beaten a year earlier. 

The hoary old line about going bankrupt gradually and then suddenly is often raided for the sports pages to describe physical decline, but it doesn’t apply to boxing, where fighters aren’t given the dignity of the gradual bit. The public only knows it’s over once it’s over. 

But based on this afternoon, any such concerns about Harrington are the stuff of needless fretting. She utterly dominated Italy’s Alessio Mesiano in her last-16 lightweight bout in Paris today, winning all three rounds 5-0. Boxing has degrees of unanimity, and Harrington’s win was as emphatic as it gets. 

She was in total control throughout, popping a left jab continuously while also yielding a generous return with her right. 

“I felt alright in there”, said Harrington. “I was trying to implement the tactics that were being given to me by the corner. We had a good plan going in and the plan worked so, yeah, it felt good.” 

Harrington had one of support team time her press interviews to two minutes, though she herself exceeded her time limit when she sent a message of support to her teammates. We shouldn’t take it personally. Harrington is approaching these Games with an obsessive kind of focus: she has come off social media entirely – even WhatsApp – and press interviews are just another external sensory distraction she doesn’t need.

You get the sense that the antiseptic, downsized Covid Games in Tokyo actually suited Harrington. 

“I didn’t look up into the crowd until afterwards”, said Harrington, “They’re distractions I don’t need when I walk into the ring. But it great to have people out there cheering me and great to see the Irish flag floating around the stadium there, it’s absolutely class.” 

Harrington is dialled in to the point she requested that we wouldn’t tell her the name of her quarter-final opponent, as she wanted to be told by her coaches to remain in step with her routine. We couldn’t have told her if we wanted, as she will face the winner of the bout between Donjeta Adiku of Kosovo and Colombia’s Angie Valdes later tonight. The latter is her likely opponent in Wednesday’s quarter-final. Win that and Harrington will be guaranteed at least a bronze medal, and will probably then face Beatriz Ferrara in the semi-final. You’ll recognise the name: they met in the final in Tokyo.  

Harrington does give the impression of being intensely motivated by her European Championship defeat, as if she is interpreting it as an outrageous personal slight.

“You have to fall to get back up”, she said. “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.” 

There was something for everyone else to learn today: Kellie Harrington looks close to her best, and the greater doubt is about what colour her medal will be, rather than whether she will win one at all.