TOKYO - Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines lost to home bet Sena Irie via unanimous decision and settled for the silver medal in boxing's women's featherweight division at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Petecio came in as the slight favorite in the 64-57-kilogram finals, but fell on the back foot early as she struggled against aggressive Irie that got loud cheers inside the Kokugikan Arena each time she attacked, whether she landed a punch or not.
The reigning world champion never really got going from there, losing in the scorecards of the five judges including one from Argentina who gave all three rounds to the Japan bet. The rest called the second round for Petecio.
The loss ended the giant-killing run of the No. 7 ranked Filipina fighter, who took down four opponents including top seed Lin Yu-ting of Chinese-Taipei and the tall Irma Testa of Italy on the way to the good-medal match.
Still, the impressive campaign made Petecio only the third silver medalist in the Philippines' long history at the Olympics, following fellow boxers Anthony Villanueva in 1964 in Tokyo and Onyok Velasco at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Petecio is set to receive incentives both in cash and in kind that could easily run up to P30 million when she comes home from the most successful campaign by a Philippine delegation in the history of the Olympics.
Petecio looked impressive in the run-up to the finals, but from the start looked uncomfortable from the onset against the fighting style of Irie, who had already beaten her in their only other meeting in the past with a punch and grab style.
"Yun po ang mga ayaw kong laro," she admitted later.
The pride of Davao del Sur regained her bearings and jarred Irie with some clear, hard shots to gain the nod of four judges in the second round, only to be shut out in the judges' scorecard in the third round.
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