NESTHY Petecio came up with a masterful performance against China’s Xu Zhichun last night (Sunday afternoon in France), scoring a 5-0 unanimous decision win in the women’s featherweight quarterfinals to emerge as the country’s second semifinalist in the Paris Olympic Games boxing meet at the Arena Paris Nord.
Exuding supreme confidence, Petecio drew from her all-around skills — punching, footwork and defense, you name it — to outbox Xu and seal her spot in the semifinals, drawing closer to another crack at the gold medal after returning home with a silver from the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021.
Three judges gave the 32-year-old veteran southpaw from Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur similar 30-27 scores while two others gave her identical 29-28 tallies in a quarterfinals match that left no doubt who was the victor.
The triumph must have stung Cuban tactician Raul Liranza, the head coach of the national Chinese boxing who used to handle the PH team and called the shots when Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco won a light flyweight silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
“Naniniwala kasi ako na ‘pag ‘yun ‘yung gustung-gusto mong makuha, hindi ibinigay ni Lord, may mas magandang purpose po siya,” Petecio said at the post-match conference, recalling her lopsided 0-5 loss to Japan’s Irina Serie in the finals of the Tokyo Summer Games three years ago.
“Ito na ‘yun. Ito ‘yung pinakamagandang purpose po ni Lord,” added Petecio, who assured the Philippines of at least its second bronze in boxing.
Petecio joined unheralded Aira Villegas in the semis.
Villegas had earlier scored a thrilling 3-2 split decision over Frenchwoman Wassila Lkhadiri in the quarterfinals of the 50kg division to assure herself of at least a bronze.
Standing in the way of Petecio’s second straight trip to the gold-medal match is Poland’s Julia Szeremeta, a former European Youth champion who also whipped Puerto Rico’s Ashleyann Lozada Motta 5-0 in their quarterfinals clash.
The semis will be held on Wednesday.
“Walang hinto hangga’t walang ginto. So dalawa na lang. So hopefully makuha na natin this time,” she said with determination.
