Harrington is the first Irish woman to medal at successive Olympic Games.

Facing her in the quest to upgrade her silver to gold was Yang, the 33-year-old top seed and reigning 60kg champion from last year’s Asian Games.

After a cautious start, Yang appeared to take control with a series of punches, but Harrington quickly regained her footing, delivering a barrage of body shots before the round ended.

In the second round, Yang opened aggressively with a strong punch to Harrington’s nose, but Harrington responded with powerful body shots.

Harrington won the first round decisively, with judges scoring it 4-1 in her favor, and maintained a 3-2 lead by the end of the second round.

Following the fight, Harrington, now a two-time Olympic champion, announced her retirement from boxing.

This victory marks a record fourth gold medal at a single Games for Team Ireland, joining Daniel Wiffen, Rhys McClenaghan, and rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy in achieving gold at the Paris Olympics.

Harrington has always asserted that there are no easy fights at the Olympics, and her performance tonight confirmed this belief. However, she rarely seemed troubled and landed some excellent punches in the final round.

Author

Hello reader, I'm Ben. I love to write and talk about sports and I am, unfortunately, hopeless at golf. Thanks for reading! 

Ben Lynch