HANGZHOU – Host China again stands in the way of Nesthy Petecio in the bid for a first ever Asian Games gold medal.
The Filipina Olympic silver medalist faces the challenge of overcoming the host after twice being frustrated by Chinese opponents in her two previous Asiad stints.
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“Lagi akong nadadale ng China,” Petecio said.
In both the 2014 (Incheon, South Korea) and 2018 (Palembang, Jakarta) Asiad, the 31-year-old Petecio was foiled by Chinese foe Yin Junhua.
The 33-year-old Yin eliminated the Filipina in the quarterfinals eight years ago, 3-0, in the women’s 60 kg division, and then scored a controversial split decision against Petecio four years later when both of them went down to 57 kg.
Jinhua is not seeing action in this year’s Asiad, but nonetheless, Petecio is looking to finally conquer her past ghost by aiming for a podium finish, much more a first ever Asiad gold.
“Challenging ito ngayon kasi sila nga ang host,” Petecio said as the entire boxing team headed by coach Ronald Chavez arrived at the Athletes' Village on Thursday morning.
Since those losses to Yin, Petecio had been a world champion (2019) and an Olympic silver medalist (2020), achievements which she admitted added to her confidence of finally reaching the podium in the quadrennial showcase.
But not to the extent of being overconfident.
“Lagi kong sinasabi yung previous achievements ko hindi siya puwedeng dalhin sa bagong competition ko dahil hindi ko naman kailangan ipakita yung medal ko para ibigay sa akin yung panalo,” Petecio added.
“Need talagang magpakita sa bawat laban.”
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