PARIS – Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio are hoping to follow in the footsteps of gymnast Carlos Yulo as they continue their drive to capture the Philippines' first Olympic boxing gold medal at the resumption of competition after a short break.
The next bouts interestingly will be held at the famed Roland Garros, the same hallowed grounds where countless tennis games of epic proportions have been played since the birth of the sport nearly a century ago. It is the site of the French Open, a major championship, since 1925.
The significance of the place may be lost on the two Filipino fighters whose mind will be totally focused on boxing as they seek victories that would give them a shot at a gold medal.
READ Lin stays on track for Petecio rematch in Paris Olympics final
The country has plenty to crow about in this Olympics where it has surprisingly overachieved with two gold medals from Yulo in the gymnastics competition, while also just waiting whether Villegas and Petecio will improved on their assured bronze in their respective divisions.
Villegas will come out first after having wamed up in the lockers where tennis icons like Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert and Iga Swiatek, amng others, had spent time before heading outside to write history.
It remains to be seen whether the country's two semifinalists will gain inspiration from the stars who had inhabited Roland Garros' inner sanctum and go out to make their own epic stories.
Roland Garros was the site of the thrilling Olympic tennis final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz just days ago with world No. 1 Djokovic prevailing, to complete a Golden Slam, winning all four majors and an Olympic gold.
The day of reckoning for Villegas, who is from Tacloban, arrives when she takes on Turkish Buse Naz Cakiroglu in a 50kg semis bout at 10 p.m. here Tuesday (early Wednesday morning in Manila), with the winner advancing to the gold-medal fight either opposite Wu Yu of China or Kazakh Nazym Kyzaibay.
Then Petecio takes her turn Wednesday night, duking it out with Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in a 57-kg semis showdown.
On the other side of the semis are top seed Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman.
Olympic neophyte Villegas tries to bring her Cinderella ride all the way to the fight for the gold while Petecio goes for a second Olympic final where she hopes to finally land on top.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
