Petecio advances, 4 others fail

“Maglalaro ako sa Paris.” This was the promise made by Tokyo Olympics silver winner Nesthy Petecio to herself after she failed to book a ticket to the Paris Games during the Hangzhou Asian Games last October.

And the 31-year-old kept her bid going yesterday following a unanimous decision victory over Romanian Maria Claudia Nechia in the World Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy.

The victory catapulted the former world champion to the round-of-16 in the women’s 57-kilogram division, and pushed the two-time Southeast Asian Games gold winner closer to one of the two Paris slots staked in her division.

But Petecio would need to win three more fights, including one against German Nancy Canan Tas, who had a second-round, refereestopped-contest triumph over Vietnamese Nguyen Huyen Tran, in the Last-16 to book what could be her final Olympic sojourn.

Petecio’s win served as a soothing balm to the bitter losses of four other Filipinos – Mark Ashley Fajardo, Claudine Veloso, Ronald Chavez Jr. and Fil-Brit John Marvin.

Fajardo absorbed an excruciating 3-2, split decision setback to Colombian Jose Manuel Viafara Fory in the men’s 63.5kg class while Veloso succumbed to Japanese Mikoto Harada via unanimous decision in the women’s 54kg section.

Chavez Jr., for his part, was booted out by Jordanian Zeyad Eashash via a first-round RSC result while Marvin was eliminated by Togolese Kevin Prudence Lonlon Ko Koadjovi, 3-2.

It was especially painful for Chavez Jr. as he could not preserve a family tradition of making it to the Olympics after his father, Ronald Sr., and uncle, Arlo, both made it to the 1992 Barcelona Games.