PHL BOOKS DATE WITH HISTORY
Nesthy Petecio booked a lopsided win that did not only send her to the next round, but also ended the country’s 89-year wait for multiple Olympic medals.
Petecio, the 2019 world champion, clobbered Yeni
Arias Castañeda of Colombia via unanimous decision to barge into the semifinals of the women’s featherweight class and move two wins away from clinching the country’s second gold medal. Hidilyn Diaz is accounted for the first mint following a dramatic triumph in the women’s 55kg weightlifting event late Monday at the Tokyo International Forum. It was the country’s first gold medal since joining this prestigious event in 1924, turning Diaz into a heroine that is now being showered with love and adulation from a nation that is still suffering from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Diaz arrived in Manila yesterday and immediately proceeded to a seven-day quarantine.
As soon as she is out, she will fly to her hometown, Zamboanga City, where she is expected to be given a warm welcome fit for a returning hero. Petecio has a chance to match that feat. In fact, her victory is a history of sort as it assured her of at least a bronze medal, signaling the renaissance of Philippine sports in this time when most of Filipinos are looking for hope after losing their jobs, their livelihoods
or, worse, their loved ones due to the pandemic.
The last time the Philippines won multiple medals was in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles when jumper Simeon Toribio, boxer Jose Villanueva and swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso led an eight-man contingent, then known as The Islanders, to an impressive finish with three bronze medals.
Toribio tallied 1.97 meters in the men’s high jump event, Villanueva prevailed over Joseph Lang of the United States in the semifinals of the bantamweight class while Yldefonso clocked two minutes and 47.1 seconds in the finals of the men’s 200m breaststroke to grab bronze medals.
Since then, the Philippines never won multiple Olympic medals with the closest in the 1988 Seoul Olympics when bowler Arianne Cerdena and boxer Leopoldo Serrantes brought home gold and bronze medals, respectively.
Unfortunately, bowling was considered as a demonstration sport, putting an asterisk on Cerdena’s feat and pushing it down to the footnote of Philippine sports history.
This tournament is proving so special to me. I am just so blessed.
Petecio, who lost to the scrappy Colombian puncher in the first round of the AIBA Women’s World Championship in 2018, said she is blessed to be assured of a bronze medal and be a key contributor to the best team that the Philippines had ever sent to the quadrennial sports spectacle.
“This tournament is proving so special to me. I am just so blessed,” said Petecio, who delivered the federation’s first Olympic medal since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco punched a silver in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
But the Filipino punchers are not yet done. Eumir Marcial, Irish Magno and Carlo Paalam still have handsome chances of winning gold medals to complete the country’s best ever participation in the Summer Games.
Marcial will tangle with Younes Nemouchi of Algeria in the men’s middleweight class Round of 16, Magno will collide with Thai rival Jutamas Jitpong in the women’s flyweight Round of 16 while Paalam will tackle Algerian Mohamed Flissi in the men’s flyweight class.