IRELAND’S KELLIE HARRINGTON has won gold at the Women’s Boxing World Championships in New Delhi, India, with a sensational victory over Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee.
The 28-year-old Dubliner was awarded a split-decision victory to join Michael Conlan and her predecessor at lightweight, Katie Taylor, as one of only three Irish boxers in history to conquer the world at amateur level.
Harrington was awarded the bout 29-28 by three of the five judges, while Sudaporn took two cards on scores of 29-28 and 30-27.
It was the Thai who landed the first shot in anger during a tense opener and it took a minute for Harrington to find the mark with anything of note. Sudaporn responded with a stinging counter-right to the nose moments later, however, and guided a couple of strong lefts to Harrington’s chin in the final minute.
Harrington closed out the final 15 seconds of a tight first round with some tidy work on the move, but was likely 10-9 down at the first interval.
Sudaporn started the second the stronger, too, before Harrington again grew into proceedings with a straight left on the swivel. She followed it up with a beautifully-timed left-right combination, the latter shot drawing the loudest noise of the fight so far from a decent New Delhi audience who had watched one of their own take silver a fight prior.
Again, the second stanza was close but it was the Irishwoman who found her rhythm and landed the more eye-catching blows to level proceedings on this writer’s unofficial scorecard.
Sudaporn upped the ante again to begin the third and final round, landing flush and marching Harrington around momentarily. The Dubliner, however, caught the Asian on her way in with about 90 seconds remaining, stopping Sudaporn in her tracks.
Harrington picked her moment and began to creep forward, throwing pot-shots where the few opportunities presented themselves.
She detonated a piercing counter-left on the inside during a rare clinch before — perhaps crucially — finishing the contest in some style, bobbing wide of a Sudaporn attack and firing a pair of unanswered, picture-perfect combinatons before the final bell.
Mere seconds later, the words “in the BLUE corner” rendered the Irish champion stunned. Harrington could scarcely hold back the tears as she embraced her foe, who was far from enthused by the verdict.
In truth, the excellent Sudaporn came within a whisker herself but can hardly cry robbery in what was a tactical encounter of razor-thin margins. For what it’s worth, this writer scored the bout 29-28 in Harrington’s favour.
The St Mary’s BC star has today gone one better than she did at the 2016 Championships, from which she took home silver. She joins Ireland’s all-time boxing elite in the process.
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