Harrington fights for (another) Olympic lightweight title
As boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics reaches its last rounds of competition, viewers might notice a change of scenery: Roland Garros, best known as the world’s most famous clay-court tennis stadium, will host semifinal and final bouts.
The sport’s first final will see two women’s lightweight (60kg/132lbs) fighters compete. Ireland’s reigning gold medalist Kellie Harrington bested Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira in a Parisian semifinal rematch of their 2020 Tokyo Olympics final, downgrading the Brazilian’s silver to a guaranteed bronze. But Harrington will have to defeat China’s Yang Wenlu — the bronze medalist at last year’s World Boxing Championships in New Dehli — to retain her Olympic title.
SEE MORE: Reigning lightweight champion Harrington punches SF ticket
Omari Jones sets sights beyond bronze with semifinal bout
Team USA arrived in Paris with eight boxers across 13 events. Only one remains in contention: 21-year-old welterweight (71kg/156lbs) Omari Jones, whose biggest sporting achievement thus far is a silver medal at the 2021 Boxing World Championships in Belgrade.
Jones goes toe-to-toe and glove-to-glove with Uzbekistan’s Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. ET. The American will certainly have his work cut out for him, as the Uzbekistani won gold in his weight class at the most recent world championship tournament.
Regardless of the outcome, the sixth-seeded Jones is guaranteed a bronze medal at this point. He’ll become the first U.S. welterweight medalist since Kenneth Gould at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
SEE MORE: Team USA’s welterweight Omari Jones in line to claim (at least) bronze in Paris
A smattering of semis
Here are some of the other bouts scheduled for Tuesday:
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.