Nesthy Petecho wins and goes for gold!
We skip talking about basketball this week, to talk about boxing.
As of this writing, Filipina featherweight Nesthy Petecio could be given the country’s second Olympic gold medal after her scintillating win over a taller and heavier Italian foe.
Petecio rallied in the middle and late rounds to beat Irma Testa of Italy via 4-1 split decision and got a shot at the gold medal in the boxing finals of the Tokyo Olympics yesterday.
Petecio lost on the scorecards of all five judges after the first round but took control of the match from the second round onwards by attacking and getting more blows on the inside, thereby eliminating the Italian’s huge advantage in size and reach.
Testa was clearly shaken by the change in tactics of the 29-year-old Filipina from Davao del Sur.
Petecio just went for broke and sealed the win, making her only the third Philippine boxer in history to reach an Olympic boxing final match after the late Anthony Villanueva in 1964, also in Tokyo, and Mansueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco in the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Petecio, the world champion in the featherweight division in 2019 but seeded only No. 7 in the Tokyo Olympics, fell on both knees and cried unabashedly after the announcement of the winner of the match.
With the win, Petecio is assured of at least a silver medal and will be going all out as she faces the winner of the match between Japan’s Irie Sera and Great Britan’s Karriss Artingstall.
Earlier, Petecio took down No. 1 seed Lin Yu-ting of Chinese-Taipei – a tall fighter who attacks with the same style as the 5-foot-8 Testa – in round 16 and therefore went into the fight quietly confident of winning.
The complexion of the fight changed drastically in the second round as Petecio sprinted out of her corner and started attacking more. The Italian started backtracking as she repeatedly got tagged by a looping right hook from Petecio.