Kellie Harrington became the first Irish woman to medal at more than one Olympic Games after securing at least bronze with a quarter-final win over Colombia's Angie Valdes Pana by unanimous decision at Paris 2024.
Kellie Harrington's 60kg semi-final on Saturday will be a rematch of the Tokyo 2020 final. Harrington was a 5-0 winner when she met Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira three years ago and must repeat that victory for a shot at retaining her gold medal. Ferreira beat Chelsey Heijnen of The Netherlands 5-0 in her quarter-final tonight.
Harrington started her quarter-final at the Arena Paris Nord as she finished her last-16 win by unanimous decision on Monday, with poise.
The Dubliner picked her moments to attack, countering effectively when Valdes Pana came forward and her first round efforts were rewarded with all five judges scoring it in her favour.
The second followed a similar pattern with the experienced Harrington continuing to box clever and remaining considered with the timing of when to come forward. This round was deemed closer with the 34-year-old shading it 3-2 on the judges’ cards.
The final round saw Harrington maintain her distance against the Colombian who was desperately seeking a route back into the contest only to encounter counters as the champion from Tokyo laid traps, ultimately winning the final round convincingly on all the judges' cards.
Earlier in the afternoon, Jude Gallagher exited Paris 2024 at the last-16 stage after suffering a defeat by unanimous decision to Carlo Palaam of the Philippines in the men's 57kg category.
The 'Tyrone Tornado', who had a bye through the last-32, would have moved to within touching distance of a medal fight if he had progressed to the quarter finals, but lost all three rounds.
He became the fifth Irish boxer to suffer a defeat in their opening fight after losses for Jennifer Lehane, Dean Clancy, Gráinne Walsh and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Aidan Walsh, with the majority of those eliminated cheering their team-mates on through the afternoon.
The 22-year-old, who took up the centre of the ring, and his opponent traded combinations as they patiently probed for openings but the judges narrowly favoured Palaam 3-2.
One minute into the second, Gallagher caught Palaam with a right as he aimed to bring parity on the scorecards but this time the Filipino was up on all five judges' cards.
With a strong final round needed for any chance to win, Gallagher was aggressive from the off in the third round as he chased Palaam around the ring, with his opponent back-pedalling in search of distance. But ultimately Palaam also took the third round 3-2 to win by unanimous decision.
Gallagher was quick to put perspective on the result afterwards.
"At the Olympic Games there's no easy opponents," he told RTÉ Sport.
"He's an Olympic silver medalist at 52kg from Tokyo so we knew the quality operator Carlos is, we knew it was going to be a tough fight. I thought I performed very well but maybe the scoring was... I don't know, maybe it was tighter than what the final verdict was.
"He's probably the smallest in the weight category. You can see it, he comes very low and swings over the top. It's hard to read and it's hard to catch him when he does it. You can't take anything away from him, he's a quality operator.
"I'm just happy to be on this stage, sharing the ring with operators like that - the best in the world - that's where you want to be."
While it wasn't the result he wanted, Gallagher added that getting to box at the Olympics was the realisation of his sporting ambition.
"I'm not a loser. I performed the best I could. Grateful to be here, for all the fans, my family, the whole team; I gave them a day out.
"That's what it's all about, I'm happy to be here, very grateful, living my dream. I'd be more fulfilled if I came home with a medal but this is what I've always wanted to do.
"We sat there watching London [2012] and said,' would you like to box here'. Now, 12 years later, I've boxed in the Paris Olympic Games.
"It's a dream come true. I've a lot to be grateful for right now. Although the decisions didn't go my way, and I wanted a better outcome, the whole experience is surreal.
"I'm very thankful to be in this opportunity. I know there's many people around the world who would give their left arm for this position I'm in so I can only be grateful."
Later on Wednesday, Aoife O’Rourke suffered a surprise loss in the last-16 of the 75kg ranks against Elzbieta Wojcik.
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
