THE golden dream remained alive for Nesthy Petecio as she advanced to the semifinals of the Paris Olympics boxing competitions after schooling Chinese Xu Zichun of China in the women’s featherweight class on Sunday night.
The Filipina boxer was never in trouble for the entire three rounds of her quarterfinal bout, landing the more telling blows in winning it via 5-0 count that assured her of a medal for the second straight Olympic Games.
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The pride of Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur bagged the silver medal in the same weight class during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The boxing team now is assured of two bronze medals as Aira Villegas also hurdled her quarterfinal match against home bet Wassila Lkhadiri in the 50 kg class.
Petecio’s opponent is 20-year-old Julia Szeremeta of Poland, who scored a unanimous decision against veteran Ashlevann Lozada of Puerto Rico in their own quarterfinal pairing.
The semifinals is set early morning of August 8 (Manila time).
Petecio took the initiative against the 28-year-old Chinese early on, scoring with clear combinations inside to negate the long reach of Xu.
It was 5-0 after the first round for the Filipina.
“Good, good. Maganda ang ginagawa mo,” said coach Reynaldo Galido during the one-minute break.
The pride of Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur maintained the pace in the second round as she kept on punishing the Chinese boxer with powerful right jabs and occasional flurry of punches for a similar 5-0 shutout entering the final round.
Final medal hopes
Petecio and Villegas now remain as the only two hopes of the country to win a first ever Olympic gold medal in boxing.
Already out of contention but had been cheering the two lady boxers in their bouts are Olympic medalists Eumir Marcial and Carlo Paalam, together with first-time Olympian Hergie Bacyadan.
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