‘I honestly woke up and felt like I had drunk 10 pints'
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Irish Examiner
37 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Kellie Harrington still packing a punch for Ireland's elite boxers
Jack Marley was a raw 18-year-old fresh out of Monkstown when Bernard Dunne invited him into the golden circle that is Irish boxing's elite high-performance unit out at the Sports Ireland Campus in Abbotstown. This was a month before the Tokyo Olympics and the place was hopping. Seven boxers were booked in for the Covid-delayed Games in Japan and the pace in the rings and on the pads would go through the roof whenever Dunne, then the high-performance boss, would step onto the floor. 'I walked into it when the kitchen was hot,' said Marley before joining the Olympic ranks in Paris last year. This wasn't a step up, more of a quantum leap, and the teenager loved the proximity it offered to the best fighters, the best coaches and the best facilities. If he could see, why couldn't he be, too? One of that seven bound for Asia then was Kellie Harrington who would win her first Olympic gold medal at sumo's Ryoguku Kokugikan, flirt with retirement, go again, retain her lightweight title in Paris at Roland Garros, then bring the curtain down on her career. Harrington talked about how she had no more mountains to climb last summer, and of the next chapter and the life she would share with her wife Mandy. She envisioned a time when she wouldn't have to look at the scales every morning. Already 34, she explained how she wanted 'to be able to do whatever type of training I want to do' post-Paris and kept alive the possibility that, while she might compete domestically in the future, her days in the international game were done. At amateur or at pro. Being announced as a member of the federation's elite, high-performance unit last January prompted a repeat of that stance. There would be no grand comeback in the offing, she insisted. Now, 12 months since Paris, and she is still in the HPU (High Performance Unit). The Irish Athletic Boxing Association's (IABA) new high-performance boss is Jon Mackey. Just four months into the job, he explained on Monday how Harrington is entitled to support from the federation and Sport Ireland for a full year after the Games. 'Kellie always has a plan,' he said. 'Any questions around Kellie not retiring from boxing are questions for Kellie. What I can say is that she's training away. She's on an individualised training programme for her on the back of Paris. She's still active. 'She's still very much part of what we do in the unit, in the high-performance unit. I've no doubt Kellie will be watching the World Championships [in September] and willing everybody on, including the 60-kilo boxer Zara Breslin, who was selected. 'And we'll have a conversation with Kellie towards the end of the year to see what next year looks like. At the moment, I'm not sure, other than to say I'm happy to see her continuously and consistently training and keeping herself in good spirits.' Which brings us back to Marley. There were no Olympic champions in the building when he walked in four years ago. Imagine the impression the sight of someone like Harrington now would have on the latest in the long line of up-and-comers looking to walk in the same shoes. A woman with nine major championship medals in all. A national figure. Mackey takes the point. It's one thing to see an Olympic champion on TV, another thing again to walk into the gym in Dublin and see them pounding the pads with a Zaur Antia or a Damian Kennedy. The inspirational becomes tangible. Visible. 'Boxers like Kellie and any of those boxers that came through the Paris cycle set a standard. They bring a certain standard to the unit. They hold each other accountable in terms of what a high-performance lifestyle is. You don't have to teach any new boxer coming in what a high-performance lifestyle looks like. 'Once you put them in with the team, they'll pick these things up as they go along and they become part of the fabric and they become cultured by it. It's very important that we have people like Kellie around, and others of course, that we capitalise on that and make best use of it.' For now, the focus rests entirely on those World Championships mentioned earlier. Breslin is one of 17 boxers Ireland will send to the M&S Arena in Liverpool for what will be the first senior tournament hosted by the nascent World Boxing body. The tournament starts on September 4th.
The Irish Sun
37 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
Steve Williams tells Shelbourne stars to seize ‘once-in-a-lifetime' European chance
Williams says the Conference League play-off with Linfield is an opportunity the modern squad must savour STEVE WILLIAMS says that going close to the group stages with Shelbourne was not the proudest achievement of his career. But it was the biggest, and he told the modern day Reds to savour every moment of their opportunity now. 2 Former Shelbourne keeper Steve Williams has urged the Dublin-based side to give it a real go in Europe 2 Shelbourne face Linfield in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first Advertisement Shelbourne face Linfield this week and next in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first time in their history. And the game brings back memories of 31 years ago when Shelbourne went close to being the first Irish club to do so in the Champions League. Just 32 clubs reached the promised land in those days and the Reds had a glorious run seeing off KR Reykjavik and Hajduk Split before facing Deportivo La Coruna. Goalkeeper Williams told SunSport: 'They'd been in the Champions League semi-finals the season before that. Advertisement 'I remember watching them against Porto and they could have beaten them. Porto won 1-0 on aggregate and went on to win the final. 'And then lo and behold, we're playing them a few months later for a chance to get into the Champions League group stage.' The first leg at Lansdowne Road was a 22,000 sell-out (terracing was not allowed be used) and Shels then headed for La Coruna in Spain just 90 minutes from glory. Williams continued: 'Half-time in the Raizor, we went to the bathroom and were looking at each other going 'holy s***, we're only 45 minutes from the group stages!' Advertisement 'We'd missed a sitter in the first half, Jay Byrne put a free header wide that you'd always back him to score as well. 'But the last 35 minutes in the second half, Deportivo went up a gear. They showed us that the gap between us was too big. Premier League star, 25, breaks silence on awkwardly-sized shorts after suffering repeated wardrobe malfunctions 'Nowadays, you'd go straight in the Europa group stage if you were in that tie. But we then had Lille in a play-off for that group stage. 'Unfortunately, Lille were really good. I think they were actually better than Deportivo, they were more organised. We drew (2-2) at home and lost (2-0) over there. 'Those games were big. Your whole football life is based on playing the best players in Europe, and sometimes the world. Advertisement 'And we did that for a spell. We didn't do it all of our careers but we weren't outperformed and we put a dot on the map for Irish soccer at the time. 'I think that's why a lot of us stayed in Ireland then when we could have moved to the UK, the chance to do something in Europe was special.' Welshman Williams, who settled in Dundalk when he first moved to Ireland in 1997 and has remained in the town to this day, also acknowledged the financial incentives are there too. He said: 'I think it was just over a €100,000 to win the tie. The Euro had just come in a few years earlier. It wouldn't have paid off your mortgage, but it would have paid a good chunk.' And what happened two years later is why Williams believes Shelbourne's players should relish these moments, as he saw how quickly things could change. Advertisement The goalkeeper won the league - his fifth - with Shelbourne in 2006 that he counts as his proudest achievement. But that was because of the turmoil off the pitch. MONEY MATTERS Williams added: 'We probably only got paid four months that year. I was working in a bar to put fuel in my car to get to Dublin for training, which no one knows. 'I was a full-time footballer…No money coming in, two young children, a mortgage…it was demoralising two years after nearly having your mortgage paid off! 'Myself and David Crawley, who also lived in Dundalk, missed some training sessions because we couldn't afford the petrol. 'But we still won the league. Of all my medals, that is the one that still takes pride of place because of what it took to win it. Advertisement 'It was, I suppose, an end of a chapter too as it was Shelbourne's last league before last year.' And while the League of Ireland has largely moved away from the boom and bust cycle then, Williams insisted that players must take the chance now, because it may never come again. He added: 'The year after we played Glentoran in the first round and won it well, but nothing ever matched the Deportivo year for us anyway. 'It helped me at Dundalk (as goalkeeping coach) as you could see what was needed. We were fit but didn't have the same technical level as Deportivo. 'Now the players are fitter - there is no gap in fitness to the top teams - and technically better as well so it become more a chess game where one thing can change a game. Advertisement 'When Dundalk reached the group stages, I felt that was it. At first we slogged for a few years, lost to BATE and a few others. 'But by the time we played BATE Borisov again (in 2016) we knew how to stay strong defensively, ride out the tough moments and win games. 'Shels….they'll fancy it against Linfield as I do think there is a difference in fitness. But it won't be a big difference.'
RTÉ News
7 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler paired again at Tour Championship
The top two players in the world will play at least one more round together this PGA Tour season, as Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will make up the final pair of the first round of the Tour Championship. Scheffler and McIlroy finished first and second in the FedEx Cup standings following Scheffler's victory at the BMW Championship on Sunday. The Texan and the County Down native also played together on Thursday and Friday at last week's penultimate event. The Tour Championship had used a staggered start based on "starting strokes" since 2019, in which the number one in the season-long standings would begin the tournament at ten under par, second would start on eight under and so on. That has been eliminated this year - all 30 players in the field will begin at even par, and the top player after 72 holes will win both the tournament and the FedEx Cup. Despite that change, the PGA Tour opted to pair golfers up for the first round based on the points standings. Scheffler and McIlroy will tee off at 2:00pm (7:00pm Irish time) on Thursday at East Lake Golf Club, with the American vying to win back-to-back FedEx Cups, while McIlroy is aiming for the fourth of his career. Just before them are another duo that's seen plenty of one another this summer. US Open champion JJ Spaun and Englishman Justin Rose are third and fourth in the points standings and will tee off together. Spaun and Rose went to a playoff at the FedEx St Jude Championship two weeks ago, with Rose winning on the third hole. Then they were paired together to start the BMW. Shane Lowry will tee it up alongside former Masters champion, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan at 4:49pm (Irish time).
