NESTHY Petecio breezed through the round-of-16 in the Paris Olympics after scoring a unanimous decision against Jaismine Lamboria of India early Wednesday morning (Manila time) at the North Paris Arena.
The Filipina boxer, silver medalist in the Tokyo Games four years ago, proved too experienced and too sleek against her taller and younger Indian opponent as she pulled off a cominant 5-0 win in the round-of-32 of the women’s 57 kg class.
The one-sided win set up the 32-year-old Petecio against home bet Aminz Zidani, seeded third in their weight class and bronze medal winner in last year’s World Championship in New Delhi.
Petecio is the second member of the Philippine boxing team to advance after Aira Villegas in the women’s 50kg division.
The native of Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur set the pace of the bout, repeatedly rocking Jaismine with looping rights to the head to get the nod of the judges except for one (Shawn Reese of the US).
“Tamang-tama yang ginagawa mo. Nakikita mo yung suntok niya,” said Filipino coach Reynaldo Galido in Petecio’s corner during the one minute break.
Jaismine, who enjoys a six inches advantage in height at 5-foot-8, tried to pressure Petecio in the second round by using her reach to jab against the smaller Filipina.
But the Indian boxer just couldn’t put her act together against her wily opponent as Petecio effectively cut off the ring and continue to score inside with powerful punches.
By the end of the bout, Petecio was all smile at the blue corner just before she was announced as the winner, clearly aware she did enough to make it through the next round.
She returns to the ring on August 3 at 2:00 a.m. (Manila time) for her round-of-16 bout against Zidani, with the winner earning a berth to the quarterfinals.
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