WINNING two medals in a single Olympics is not bad. Except that it was not the kind of medal the Philippine boxing contingent was hoping for in the Paris Games. In the end, the team was left with the thought of what could have been.
Having been so close to winning the gold four years ago not just once but twice, the pair of bronze medals brought home by the boxing team appears to be a bitter pill to swallow.
Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas were seemingly on track to give the five-man boxing unit a shot at the elusive gold after they entered the semifinals of their respective weight classes in women’s boxing.
But Villegas was outclassed by Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Turkey via unanimous decision, 5-0 in the 50 kg class.
Petecio, one of two Filipino boxers to win a silver in the 2020 Tokyo Games, meanwhile, blew a 5-0 lead in the first round and lost on a split decision against Olympic debutante Julia Szeremeta of Poland, 4-1.
On any other Olympics, two bronze medals would be a reason for unbridled joy. But when compared with the two silver and one bronze medal the boxing team brought home three years ago, this output is a disapointment. It is also because the team sent to Paris was nearly identical to the one that competed in Tokyo.
The veterans included Petecio, Carlo Paalam (silver), and Eumir Marcial (bronze) with Villegas and Hergie Bacyadan as the new additions.
The five boxers who qualified are the most by the boxing team in an Olympics since the 1996 Games in Atlanta where the team also sent five boxers.
The team, unfortunately, did not have an auspicious start. One of its medal hopes, the 28-year-old Marcial, lost his opening bout in the men’s 80 kg class following a 5-0 upset at the hands of Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan.
Bacyadan then followed suit as she found herself matched up early against top seed and Asian Games and World Championship gold winner Li Quan of China, losing via unanimous decision, 5-0, in the heaviest weight class in women’s boxing at 75 kg.
Paalam, 26, hoping to surpass the silver medal he bagged in Tokyo, reached the quarterfinals, but fell prey to Charlie Senior in the men’s 57 kg. via split decision, 3-2.
That left Petecio and Villegas to carry the fight for the country, but there was no glorious ending in their bid for gold.
Incidentally, with the exception of Bacyadan, all of the Filipino boxers’ tormentors didn’t get to win the gold in their weight classes. Only Li emerged champion in the women’s 75 kg.
In all, the two bronze medals the country won landed the Philippines at 17th overall in the boxing tally – the best among Southeast Asian nations, but sixth in the Asian region as Uzbekistan emerged the overall champion with five gold medals.
The outcome was sixth notches below the country’s finish in Tokyo where it placed 11th overall, was No. 3 in Asia and No. 1 in Southeast Asia.
If it's any consolation, Philippine boxing continues to be the best source of Olympic medal for the country with a total of 10 - four silvers and six bronzes.
In the last two Olympics alone, boxing produced five medals.
But the future does not seem so bright for boxing. There is a move that is gaining ground to eliminate boxing from the next Olympics in Los Angeles because of the continued power struggle between the international boxing federation and the International Olympic Committee.
If that happens, that would be a sad day for the sport, particularly for the Philippines whose boxing team, as the record shows, is a rich source of medals.
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