A win by Nesthy Petecio secures her another Olympic medal, which puts her in rarefied air as far as generel Philippine sports is concerned.
In what has been an eventful 24 or so hours for the Philippine Centennial Team in the Olympic Games Paris 2024, history beckons anew for one of the country’s sporting greats.
Nesthy Petecio will see action in the quarterfinals of the women’s 57kg boxing Sunday (Philippine time), taking on China’s Xu Zichun.
A victory for Petecio sends her to the semifinals, meaning a guaranteed bronze medal.
If Nesthy moves on, she joins Carlos Yulo and Aira Villegas as medal winners in Paris 2024. But more importantly, if Petecio takes the victory here, she joins Hidilyn Diaz as the only Filipinas to win multiple Olympic medals.
Nesthy has been impressive in Paris 2024 so far, first beating India’s Jaismine in her opening bout, before stopping local favorite and no. 3 seed Amina Zidani in the last round.
However, Nesthy’s Chinese opposition has been equally impressive.
Despite being unseeded like Petecio, Xu picked up two close victories to advance to the quarterfinals, winning 3-2 each time against Italy’s Irma Testa and Colombia’s Valeria Arboleda.
Petecio and Xu are expected to take to the ring at 9:30 p.m. tonight.