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| Petecio (in red) loses to her Polish opponent in a split decision (AFP photo) |
Two Filipina boxers fell short of a shot at the gold medal when they both lost their bouts against their respective opponents at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Still, Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, will each bring
home a bronze medal, which takes the Philippines’ total haul in the Games to 4,
after the two golds won by Carlos Yulo in the men’s floor and vault finals.
An Olympic gold in boxing remains elusive for the
Philippines as all of its five boxers who made it to Paris have already bowed out.
Three failed to win any medal, but the two did.
Petecio, a silver medallist in the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, lost in a split decision to Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in their women’s
57kg boxing semifinal bout early this morning (Manila time).
Four judges scored it 29-28 in favor of Szeremeta,
while one had it 29-28 for Petecio.
The 32-year-old Filipina took the first round with
crisp punches and patient attacks, but her 20-year-old opponent landed solid
punches in the final minute of the match, securing her victory.
“Akala ko akin
to this time, sobrang grabe yung tiwala ko sa sarili ko na makukuha ko siya.
But yun nga, medyo hindi tayo [pinalad] ngayong gabi,” (I thought it was
already mine as I was very confident about it. But, I was a bit unlucky
tonight).Petecio said in an interview after the match.
But she said she remained thankful to the Lord
because of her good showing in the match.
Szeremeta will face Chinese Taipei’s Yu-ting Lin in
the final. Lin defeated Turkiye’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman in the semifinal via
unanimous decision, her third straight victory in the tourney.
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| Villegas takes bronze in her first Olympic outing (Reuters photo) |
Villegas, meanwhile, earned bronze in the boxing women’s 50kg in her Olympic debut. Her bid for the gold was halted by second-seed Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Türkiye, who progressed to the final by a unanimous decision.
Villegas faced an uphill battle in the first round
but stunned everyone when she knocked down Cakiroglu in the second. The
Filipina followed that up with some strong punches but failed to take that
round, or the third and last one.
Cakiroglu, who won silver at Tokyo 2020, will get a
crack at the gold when she faces Wu Yu of the People’s Republic of China tomorrow,
Friday.
Both Filipinas will receive P2 million each from the
Philippine government for their third-place win in line with Republic Act
10699.
Under the same law, gold medalists are given an
incentive of P10 million while silver winners get P5 million.
The Philippines’ medal quest does not end here, as
it has four more athletes in the wings – weightlifters Vanessa Sarno and Elreen
Ando, and golfers Dottie Ardina and Bianca Pagdanganan.
