TOKYO - Nesthy Petecio lived up to expectations in her Tokyo Olympics debut, handily beating Marcelat Matshiu Sakobi of Congo via unanimous decision on Saturday at the Kokugikan Arena.
Petecio, the No. 7 ranked featherweight in the world and regarded as one of the country's brightest prospects for a medal, landed the cleaner, clearer punches in all three rounds to easily get the nod of all five judges.
The 5-0 victory set her up for her first real test in a round-of-16 match against top seed Lin Yu-ting of Chinese-Taipei.
Marcelat Sakobi Matshu vs Nesthy Petecio
Petecio was so dominant that only one of the five judges gave one round to the overwhelmed Sakobi, leading to a 29-28 edge in the final scorecard under the 10-point must system used for the boxing competitions.
The four other judges made Petecio a clear 30-27 winner.
The easy part over, Petecio now trains her focus on her July 26 (Monday) match against the top-seeded Lin, who, since the Filipino won the world championship in the division in 2019, has risen to become No. 1 in the world.
Judging from her match against Sakobi, the 29-year old Petecio will have to shake off the rust from months of inactivity to have a shot at beating Lin.
Petecio started tentatively and had trouble finding her range in the opening round. But when she did in the middle round, she started landing stinging shots to the head that led to the convincing score.
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