Heavy hitters
There was a moment in the second round when Nesthy Petecio smoked Frenchwoman Amina Zidani with a scorching left that wobbled the hometown bet. It looked, for a passing second, like the No. 3 seed dropped to a knee as a result of the punch.
There was no count from the referee, though. Luckily, it didn’t matter.
“When she got hit with my hook, I really felt my fist hit her plus she got hurt with body shots. She really got hurt with those body shots,” Petecio told local Olympics broadcaster OneSports.
That was the exchange that turned things around for Petecio, who reached the quarterfinals of the women’s 57kg boxing event early Saturday morning in the Paris Olympics.
Petecio was the first of four medal favorites that saw action Saturday for the Philippines, with EJ Obiena kicking off his pole vault podium bid.
Obiena cleared 5.75m in the preliminary, easily making it to the final of the event where he is expected to figure prominently in the medal hunt.
Obiena will be seeded seventh among the 12 qualifiers, although it is important to note that the Filipino has a lot of reasons to be optimistic: His 5.75 was the same mark shared by 10 oif the 12 qualifiers, including the likes of world No. 1 and record holder Mondo Duplantis (Sweden) and world No. 3 Sam Kendricks (United States).
It wasn’t the breeze expected of Obiena though, as he had to buck some scary moments before sliding into the final. Obiena fumbled his first two attempts at 5.60m and waved off a third attempt at that height to try for 5.70. The world No. 2 cleared that and then sealed his stint in the medal battle with his 5.75.
Carlos Yulo, meanwhile, was looking to put the Philippines on the medal board as he campaigned in the vault final. Carlo Paalam, on the other hand, was going for a guaranteed bronze medal.
After that sequence, Petecio looked settled, far from the boxer who in the first round gingerly pawed at air as she looked to unlock some unreachable space close to the longer Zidani. Foiled by her foe’s reah and timely counters, Petecio fell behind in the first round on three judges’ scorecards.
“I was sizing her up,” Petecio said. “I was thinking about avoiding her touches but she was aggressive. When I saw the scores [after Round 1], I thought: ‘this can’t be.’ I can’t lose here.”
At the break, as her corner worked to loosen her arm muscles, the instruction to her was clear: “Be unpredictable. Be unpredictable.”
She responded well in the second round.
And while Petecio advanced to the quarterfinals with a victory over the favored Zidani, which was far closer than the 4-1 tally of judges’ scorecards, things will only get more difficult for the former featherweight world champion.
Petecio won, 30-27, on one judge’s card and was up just a round, 29-28, on the three others. A fifth judge saw Zidani winning, 29-28.
The Tokyo Games silver medalist will next face China’s Xu Zichun, who won a split decision against Colombia’s Valeria Arboleda Mendoza in a later bout, on Monday (Manila time).
Petecio is one of three Filipino fighters still alive in Paris, along with Carlo Paalam and Aira Villegas, who was fighting at press time.
The boxing squad has already lost Tokyo bronze medalist Eumir Marcial and Hergie Bacyadan, who both dropped their opening bouts.
Zidani managed to send a packed North Paris Arena crowd in delirious cheers as she thrived on counters against the smaller Filipino, but Petecio remained relentless as she uncorked combinations that kept her in the medal hunt in the glamorous French capital.
“My coach told me to stay steady and punch right away and thankfully, I did it in the second round.”
A win in her next fight will guarantee Petecio a bronze.
