Petecio delivers ray of hope
Pinay pug unwraps golden quest; Yulo advances
Nesthy Petecio provided a ray of sunshine on a slow, gloomy day as she demolished her African foe to advance to the next round of the women’s featherweight class in the boxing competition of the
Tokyo Olympics Saturday at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Petecio delivered a preview of her championship performance as she clobbered Marcelat Sakobi Matshu of Congo while gymnast Carlos Yulo advanced to the finals of the vault apparatus of the men’s artistic gymnastics with a score of 14.712 points to give the Filipinos something to cheer for despite the early exits of Kurt Barbosa and Remedy Rule. Barbosa bowed to topseed Jang Jun of South Korea, 6-26, in the opening round of the men’s -58kg event while Rule bombed out in the women’s 100m butterfly event later in the day. A 21-year-old former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, Barbosa, was completely outclassed and outdueled by the Korean star to move to the repechage with the hopes of salvaging at least a bronze medal.
But his hopes of settling for a consolation vanished in thin air after Jang suffered a sorry loss to Mohamed Jendoubi of Tunisia, 25-19, in the semifinals, prompting the young Filipino jin to book a flight back to Manila without a medal to show.
“This may not be our time, but I promise that I won’t stop fighting and trying because I believe that losing is part of the game and it is where we learn and get the courage to fight again,” Barbosa said in a social media post.
“We are just getting started, I will surely apply of my experiences on my next game and I hope you are all still with me until we get that victory.”
On the same note, Rule also kissed her golden chances goodbye after clocking 59.68 seconds to emerge 25th out of 26 competitors in women’s 100m butterfly at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
She, however, still has a chance to redeem herself when she sees action in women’s 200m freestyle on Monday. Still, the day belonged to Petecio. Displaying a very technical game with the right amount of speed and power, Petecio was never threatened right from the opening bell as she pounced on her taller foe with a handful of crisp, clean head and body shots. The Congolese tried to mount a rally in a desperate attempt to hammer a knockout, but Petecio smartly brushed it off en route to scoring an overwhelming unanimous decision win. Four judges gave her a 30-27 win while another official saw it 29-28, allowing her to secure the victory that sent her to the Round of 16.
It was a scrappy performance.
Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP) head coach Don Abnett of Australia lauded his ward, who displayed an impressive performance despite a very long layoff due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
“It was a scrappy performance,” Abnett said, adding that Petecio could have stepped on the gas, but opted to take it slow to reserve her power for the tough grind ahead, including her battle with former world champion Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei in the Round of 16 on Monday.
“She can still do better. But it’s better to win a scrappy fight than to lose a scrappy fighter.” Petecio’s win, however, is just the tip of the iceberg for the vaunted national boxing team, which is hunting for its first Olympic medal since Ricky Vargas took the ABAP leadership in 2009.
Irish Magno will kick off her golden quest when she battles Christine Ongare of Kenya in the women’s flyweight class on Sunday.
Although Magno booked an Olympic ticket following a victorious performance in the Asia Oceania Boxing Championships in Jordan last year, she will still march as a heavy underdog as she is ranked 25th in the world while Ongare is No. 17.
Abnett said they anticipate an easy win for Magno as they already have the scrappy Kenyan fighter all figured out.
“We analyzed her opponent last night and the tactic Irish needs to use is sort of going in and out of punching range,”
Abnett said.
“The Kenyan girl loves to scrap. Irish just has to open the space, let her miss and then counter with what we call bread and butter shots, strikes to the head and body.”
Also making his Olympic debut is shooter Jayson Valdez, who will compete in the men’s
10m air rifle qualification while rower Cris Nievarez will march back to warpath to vie in the quarterfinals of the men’s single sculls event.