PH’s Nesthy Petecio assured of Olympic medal in boxing

Filipina boxer Nesthy Petecio is assured of an Olympic medal after Yeni Marcela Arias Castaneda of Colombia via a unanimous decision in the quarterfinals of the women’s featherweight division Wednesday at the Kokugikan arena.

This will be the Philippines’ second Olympic medal after weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the country’s gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Nesthy Petecio won the fight on all of the judge’s scorecards, getting a 30-27 from two judges and 29-28 on the other three. She won the first round on all five scorecards, 10-9, and took at least one more round for each of the judges in rounds two and three.

With the win, Petecio is now assured of at least an Olympic bronze medal.

The Filipina boxer will next face the bout’s winner between Caroline Veyre of Canada and Irma Testa of Italy.

Nesthy Alcayde Petecio is a Filipina boxer whose claim to fame won a gold medal at the 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. As of 1 January 2015, she is number 2 at the Women’s 57 kg. category at the Amateur International Boxing Association’s ranking.

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Nesthy Petecio assured of Olympic medal in women’s boxing

In Davao City, she was recruited to be part of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines-Calinan boxing team, which was set to participate in the 2007 Smart National Youth and Women’s Open Boxing Championships Cagayan de Oro. Petecio won the gold at the women’s 50 kg. category and gained a slot in the national women’s boxing team at age 15.

She competed at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

At the 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Ulan-Ude, Nesthy Petecio won gold in the featherweight division after defeating hometown bet Liudmila Vorontsova in the final.

She ended the year with another gold medal, this time at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. After failing to bring home the top prize in the biennial meet in her three previous attempts, it was a sweet victory for Petecio after failing to bring home the top prize in the biennial meet.