NESTHY Petecio and rival Lin Yu-ting remained on course for a possible clash for the gold medal in the Paris Olympics.
The Filipina and the controversial Chinese Taipei bet are two of four fighters left in contention come the semifinals of the women’s featherweight class.
Petecio and Lin dispatched their quarterfinals foes in similar fashion at the North Paris Arena to advance to the Final Four.
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Lin was the first to advance with a 5-0 win over eight-seeded Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria, 5-0, before Petecio followed suit by scoring a similar 5-0 victory against Xu Zichan of China.
The final moments of Lin’s fight against Staneva was also engulfed with controversy after the Bulgarian fighter refused to shake the hands of her Chinese Taipei foe.
Instead, she held her hands up and made a double ‘X’ gesture in obvious reference to the 28-year-old winner, who had been accused of having the XY chromosome (male). The general female carries a double X code.
Now only two boxers from Turkey and Poland stand in the path of the two in a highly-anticipated showdown for the gold.
Petecio will meet Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the semis after the latter pulled off a unanimous decision (5-0) against veteran Ashlevann Lozada of Puerto Rico, while Lin takes on Esra Yildiz of Turkey - a 4-1 winner over Jucielen Romeu of Brazil.
Lin and Petecio met during the Tokyo Olympics, where the Filipinas edged out the Chinese Taipei fighter, 3-2, in the round-of-16.
Like four years ago, Lin is again seeded No. 1 to win the women’s 57 kg class amidst the controversy that hounded her in light of her failed gender test in the last IBA World Championship in New Delhi last year.
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