Team Ireland’s third medal of the Olympic Games was greeted with a soundtrack reminiscent of Italia ‘90.
Kellie Harrington’s friends and neighbours were already on their feet singing “Olé, Olé, Olé” before the end of her quarter-final 60kg bout against Angie Paola Valdes Pana.
The result was never in doubt as far as the hundreds of people crammed into the benches at the Diamond Park in Dublin’s north-inner city were concerned.
This refurbished park, opened after extensive work by Dublin City Council last year, is an oasis of hope in an area that often felt without hope but which is undergoing regeneration at present.
Harrington is one of their own and she has brought so much pride and joy to the north inner-city in recent years with medals in successive Olympic Games.
The prelude to her fight against her Columbian opponent was the rerunning on a big screen of the victory parade which Harrington undertook after winning gold in Tokyo. It could have been so much hubris had she not won another Olympic medal, at least a bronze, following her victorious fight.
Pensioners, schoolchildren on their summer break, mothers and babies in their prams made it a multigenerational gathering at the Diamond Park. As soon as the boxing judge lifted Harrington’s arm, the crowd began to dance and sing.
“She’s great value in the inner-city, just for people to have a little belief in themselves,” said Katie Knodd whose son Sonny Kenna (7) has taken up boxing in Harrington’s footsteps.
“The area has a bad name but she shows that if you keep doing what you are doing and stay in your own lane, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. She was a role model even for me. Years ago she was trying to get me into boxing, but I never believed in myself and I never went after that. I feel so proud. Fair play to you Kellie Harrington, keep going, we all love you,” said Adrienne Byas who claims she babysat the Olympic boxer when she was younger.
Veteran local Cllr Christy Burke said Harrington was more than just a sporting hero for local people. She had turned “despair into gold. She’s a humble individual, no ego. She has tremendous support here throughout Ireland and throughout the world. She’s on a roll and she’s not going to be stopped. Today is like Christmas without Santa Claus.”
Christmas comes but once a year, but Harrington will have at least one more chance to delight her home crowd. She fights in the semi-final on Saturday night with a silver medal at least on the line.
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