Tokyo Olympics: Boxers Brendan Irvine & Kellie Harrington to hold Eire flag at opening ceremony

Brendan Irvine

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Irvine won a silver medal for Northern Ireland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games

Belfast boxer Brendan Irvine and team-mate Kellie Harrington will carry the Irish flag at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.

Irvine, who represented Ireland at the Rio Olympics in 2016, also captains the seven-strong Irish boxing squad.

Harrington, 31, is making her Olympic debut, having beaten Caroline Dubois in the qualification tournament in June.

For the first time in Olympic history, all 205 countries will have a male and female flag bearer.

It is being done as part of a gender parity initiative from the International Olympic Committee.

Irvine, 25, becomes the fourth Belfast-born boxer to carry the Team Ireland flag at an Olympic opening ceremony after Jim McCourt (1968), Wayne McCullough (1988) and Paddy Barnes (2016).

Boxing is Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport, with 16 of the 31 Irish medals having been won by boxers.

Flyweight Irvine is competing in his second Olympics while Games…

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