Kellie Harrington the heroine: This performance will stand as a testament to her career

Kellie Harrington celebrates winning the gold with Coach Zaur Antia and Coach John Conlan

All morning the rain came down in Tokyo.

It collected in pools on the streets, sent people scurrying to subway entrances and under bridges. Some of the Irish here chose to see it as, if not a gift from the gods, then a nod of the head that this would be their day.

Those who had been here in 2019 for the Rugby World Cup could have interpreted this differently, recalling the day of deluge that followed Ireland’s quarter-final loss to New Zealand as an all-too-fitting postscript to the team’s troubled campaign.

“On ye go now, lads,” it seemed to say. “Time to go home.” 

That’s the rouble with piseogs, they don’t shape events, they’re shaped by them.

But there was little else to do here other than fret and forecast until Kellie Harrington made for the ring just before two o’clock in the afternoon. Just wait and fidget because it has, in truth, been the longest of weeks the longer it has gone on.

Irish medal hopes drained away in the equestrian arena and for Natalya Coyle in Tokyo Stadium and it has all sharpened the focus on Harrington here as the 2020 Games fade away in front of our very eyes.

It’s been obvious for days, the feeling that eyes back home have returned inexorably to the hurling and football, to the Premier League’s approach, and even towards the dreadfully grim sham that was the British and Irish Lions tour.

The build-up here reflected that last-day-of-school vibe. Olympic volunteers larked about taking photos of themselves in ubiquitous boxing poses. Muscle were flexed, walks were taken from the tunnel towards the ring, all of them far more theatrical than Harrington’s.

Bernard Dunne, the boxing team’s high-performance director, entered the arena a full 45 minutes before Harrington’s fight which, for at least the third time here, was the first on the bill. His work was done. Everyone’s was. There was nothing for it but to wait.

And boy was it worth it.

Not all finals live up to the billing, or the stage. The Dubliner was adamant that this Olympic journey would not define her, win or lose, but this performance will stand as testament to her career and her very character in much the same way as the gold medal earned.

Beatriz Ferreira had won all of her fights to this point by unanimous decision and there were ominous signs that similar punishment could be meted out here as the Brazilian landed blow after blow through the first 90 seconds.

Harrington recovered. Recalibrated. Enough to win the round on the Australian and Cuban scorecards? Plenty thought that debatable but the ability to find her feet amid that first-round flurry and be so close in the numbers proved a turning point.

Harrington nodded her head and smiled at the end of the first. It was the sort of muted body language that screamed, ‘okay, I see where this is at'. Zaur Antia and John Conlan clearly saw it the same way. The next two rounds were hers.

The judges agreed. Harrington won the second and third on all five cards as she forced Ferreria, such an aggressive boxer, onto the back foot at times and frustrated her opponent’s own approaches.

As it went on, Ferreira’s razor-sharp combinations began to slow, And miss. The Brazilian stuck a hand in the air after the last two rounds but the certainty and sharpness of the gesture had become sluggish.

This was slipping away and she knew it.

The turnaround was astonishing. Harrington looked in danger of being swamped after a minute-and-a-half but it was almost impossible to see her lose with 90 seconds left. The six minutes in between had been bent to her will, her talent and her coaches’ plans.

Any doubt was dissipated as soon as the announcer uttered the word ‘unanimous’. There was no post-fight dance from Ferreira this time, the ring left to Harrington who eventually sank to her knees and bore a look of disbelief until she disappeared from view.

Just the third Irish boxer to win an Olympic gold. A fourth medal for Ireland at these Olympics and an eighteen in total for the sport of boxing across the decades. All of those are just numbers, though, nice as they are.

Medals and ceremonies are nice, but it’s the nine minutes that should be cherished the most.