SOLID EXIT: Petecio bows to Japanese rival, grabs historic silver
Kirsten Yani Villanueva
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| PHOTO: Agence France-Presse |
Still, a remarkable feat.
Nesthy Petecio came up short for a gold medal after a 0-5 loss to hometown bet Sena Irie, but she is now the first Filipina to win an Olympic boxing medal.
The Petecio-Sena tetralogy on Tuesday at Kokugikan arena opened in a 5-0 nod for the 20-year-old Japanese, and she also finished the third round with a 10 from five judges en route to capturing the featherweight plum.
Irie joined Takao Sakurai, 1964; and Ryota Murata, 2012, in the list of boxing gold medalist for Japan.
Like the Testa semi-final fight, the Davaoena came back and started to gain momentum in the second round to even the count at 19. But, the Argentinian judge had Sena up, 20-18.
The 29-year-old Peticio will return to the country with a guaranteed PhP 5 million pesos as per RA 10699. Also in history, she duplicated the finish made by silver medalists Anthony Villanueva, 1964; and Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco, 1996.
Debuting in the Olympics, the reigning featherweight world champion Petecio outdid a gritty European titlist Testa to jump in the finale.
The win gave Irie a 3-1 win-loss card in her rivalry with Petecio. Her third victory was made special by being named as the first women's featherweight gold medalist in the quadrennial games.
It was not the end of the road for PH Boxers as Eumir Marcial and Carlo Paalam is still in the gold medal contention.
Marcial shoots for a final ticket on August 5, while Paalam needs to outduel another Japanese in Ryomei Tanaka for a finals seat.
Report source: Inquirer Sports