Phl officials cry foul as top Pinay boxer exits early
JAKARTA – Nesthy Petecio was shocked and shed tears of anger more than sorrow, and Filipino sports officials cried foul right at the start of the Asian Games boxing competition Friday as the country’s top Filipina pug fell victim to what they deemed was unfair judging.
Petecio, a former world championship silver medalist, was convinced she was robbed of a clear win.
Boxing secretary general Ed Picson called it a travesty while Philippine chef de mission
Richard Gomez said it’s a case of “bad call, bad decision and bad scoring.”
Petecio set out as the gold-medal favorite but moved out of the medal hunt right after her opening bout that went in favor of Chinese rival Yin Junhua to the surprise of most of the crowd at the Jakarta International Expo Hall C.
The 26-year-old Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur native connected with clear shots and emerged the better fighter in exchanges but failed to get the nod of the judges who gave the fight to the Chinese on a 3-2 split decision.
As the game announcer hollered the decision, Petecio stared at the judges, wondering aloud if what she heard was a mistake.
“I know I am the winner. And I do believe if I were able to get past the Chinese, the gold would be mine. I didn’t want to get off the ring because I couldn’t believe it was all over for me,” said Petecio. “I work hard and long for this,” she rued. The Phl chef de mission saw for himself the daylight robbery in Petecio’s fight.
“We saw the whole fight, bugbog ang China; tapos China ang panalo,” said Gomez.
The Philippines suffered crushing losses in two other boxing bouts.
Joel Bacho reeled to a 1-4 loss against Iranian Sajjad Kazemzadeh in their 69kgs bout. By late last night, Mario Fernandez was leading on points in the third round when caught by a haymaker in brutal knockout loss to Iraqi Jaafar Abdulridha Ali Al Sudani.
Thus, the nine-strong boxing team was down to five – Carlo Paalam in the light flyweight (49Kg), Roger Ladon in flyweight (52kg), James Palicte in lightweight (60kg), Eumir Lopez in the middleweight (75kg) and and Irish Magno in flyweight (51kg).