Lightweight (57-60 kilograms), Women

Although Ireland’s Kellie Harrington was the reigning Olympic champion, much of her success had come before the Tokyo Games, her successes since then being at European events. Nevertheless, she was seeded third for the Paris Olympics and had a fairly straight forward path to the final, defeating Italian Alessia Mesiano and Colombian Angie Valdés by unanimous decisions and, in a rematch of the 2020 Olympic final, Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil in the semi-final, on a split 4-1 decision.

In the final, Harrington came up against the top seeded Chinese Yang Wenlu and, in a close contest, won on another split 4-1 decision. Some observers thought Yang was fortunate to win her quarter-final contest against Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina when three of the five judges scored the contest as a draw, all three then awarding Yang the victory – the other two judges had Shadrina as the clear winner. Wu Shih-Yi (TPE) was the other bronze medalist, losing a unanimous decision in her semi-final against Yang.