YOUNG Julia Szeremeta of Poland gatecrashed a highly-anticipated Olympic rematch after pulling off a huge upset against Nesthy Petecio to punch a ticket to the gold medal round of the Paris Games early Thursday morning (Manila time) at the Roland Garros Arena.
The 20-year-old Szeremeta overcame a slow start by outworking the Filipina boxing star in the make-or-break final round to take the 4-1 victory in the semifinals of the women’s featherweight class.
The stunning victory averted what could have been a showdown between Petecio and long-time rival Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei in the finals.
Instead, the Polish fighter will now get a crack at the 5-foot-11 Lin in the battle for the gold.
Lin, who stirred the boxing competition the past two weeks following her failed gender test in last year’s World Championships, breezed to the finals with a 5-0 win over Esra Yildiz of Turkey in the earlier semifinal bout.
The loss by Petecio, 32, relegated her of taking home a bronze medal, one notch below the silver medal she won in Tokyo four years ago.
It was also in the 2020 Summer Games where the native of Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur beat Lin by the skin of her teeth, 3-2, in their round-of-16 match.
Petecio’s exit also meant the end of the Philippine boxing team’s campaign in the tournament that also saw Aira Villegas bagging a bronze medal in the women’s flyweight class.
Still, the first ever boxing gold remains elusive for the Filipino pugs, who had their best ever finish in Tokyo with two silver medals courtesy of Petecio and Carlos Paalam, and a bronze from Eumir Marcial.
For a while, it appeared Petecio was on perfect track of advancing as she won the first round in all of the judges’ scorecards, 5-0.
“Tuloy lang. Tama yung ginagawa mo,” said coach Reynaldo Galido in Petecio’s corner during the one-minute break.
But Szeremeta came out firing in the second round and engaged Petecio in a virtual slugfest and delivered the more telling blows to enter the last round just behind on one of the judges’ card.
Managing to adjust on Petecio’s style, the ever smiling and playful Polish kept on pressuring the Filipina and got the better of their exchanges to complete the massive upset.
Szeremeta did it as all five judges gave her the nod in the final round.
The gold medal match is set on August 11 at 3:30 a.m. (Manila time).
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