When Kellie Harrington starts her ring walk for her Olympic gold medal fight, she will have already lived the moment in her head.
Harrington has been waiting for this moment, the culmination of all the blood, sweat, tears and hard work, for most of her 31 years on the earth.
But Bernard Dunne believes she has already been here in her head, such is the level of preparation that his fellow Dubliner has done to get to what he calls "the final step on her ladder".
Harrington has talked about this being the journey, not the destination, yet a gold medal fight in Tokyo is boxing's equivalent of climbing Everest.
“This is what she has dreamed about all her life," said Dunne. "This is what all these guys dream about.
"This isn’t something new for them, they’ve lived this moment. We’re trying to manage that piece around it because it can create a lot of anxiety, a lot of pressure.
"I think you can just see from the body language around the athletes that they have become very good at that management piece, knowing that they’re ready, the preparation has been done, now their performances have to come out."
It has been a step by step, fight by fight process. The draw wasn't kind to most of the seven Irish boxers, but Aidan Walsh takes home the bronze and Harrington has silver in the bag before fighting the formidable Brazilian, Beatriz Ferreira.
“It’s language we would always use around our team. We came here focused on performance, focusing on the step by step," said Dunne.
"Kellie is now onto the final step on her ladder.
"She’ll focus on the tactical pieces that are given to her and really it’s just about self-management now, that’s probably the most important piece."
It has the making of an intriguing fight. Harrington won the 2018 worlds, Ferreira emulated the feat the following year when the Irish boxer was injured.
They have never met in the ring. Harrington is the top seed here, and due to a lack of competition during the Covid pandemic is ranked third in the world. Ferreira is ranked first.
So now two world champions collide.
"It’s fantastic," said Ireland's head coach, Zaur Antia. "They will have a plan, we will have a plan. We’ll see."
On paper it will be a clash of styles, Harrington the classic counter-puncher versus the relentless aggression of her 28-year-old opponent who works in the military.
Not so, insist Antia and Dunne. “Ferreira has good counter-attacks as well. She is skilful and aggressive," said the Georgian tactician.
Dunne said that Ferreira's semi-final win over the Finnish veteran Mira Potkonen showed a different side to the Brazilian.
"She wasn’t aggressive actually, she was very passive in what she did and actually countered with the right quite a lot," the team leader commented.
"She can vary it. But it's hugely important what we want to implement - and that’s what the coaches are focussed on now, what Kellie can do."
Harrington has been brilliant at sticking to the plan, as illustrated in her semi-final win over Thai rival Sudaporn Seesondee.
Both boxers hang back, waiting for the other to lunge in. Harrington didn't bite.
“If the plan works very well, it will work for a while," explained Antia.
"You have to have three plans and change them all the time, not to let them settle and find out.
“It’s about body language, coaches reading body language, the boxer reads the body language of the opponent and then if you call at the right time then the boxer will implement this.
"If the boxer implements it later, it will not work.
"That’s from many years together, what we have learned from each other. When we call something and it’s implemented at the same time, that’s when good things happen."
Dunne added: “When we see that they’re starting to anticipate Plan A, that will change and we freshen it up and that’s why we work on plan A, B, C and sometimes D, if there’s a requirement from it."
“Kellie is like all the athletes - they trust in all the coaches, the team, the information that has been given to them and they follow those instructions and they’ve seen success from them which is hugely important.
"In my opinion, we’ve the best coaching team in world boxing.
"Between them, the experience they have, the medal success they have, the relationships they build with the athletes and you can see it in the performance of all seven of our guys out here."
