WORLD champion Nesthy Petecio couldn’t wait for the government to lift the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
And she could hardly wait any longer to hug her mom Prescilla when she gets home to Davao when the “new normal” with less restrictions on travel is enforced.
“The first thing I’ll do is book a [plane] ticket home,” Petecio, the women’s boxing world featherweight champion, told BusinessMirror on Thursday. “And once I get home, I’ll hug my mom and ask her to cook pork adobo and gorge on my favorite food.”
Petecio has all the reasons to miss home. She and a dozen or so of her teammates, including Tokyo Olympics-bound Irish Magno, were stranded in Baguio City since the ECQ was enforced last March 14.
The team that saw action in the Olympic qualifiers in Amman, Jordan, and were forced to undergo quarantine during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Petecio said she and her teammates settled for sardines at certain times in Baguio City, one of the cities which imposed extreme ECQ during the pandemic.
“I will go home because I miss my family so much. I will also check the house that I’m building,” she said.
Besides her family and adobo, Petecio said she wants to pamper herself after the quarantine.
“I’m also excited to get my haircut, and have an appointment with my dentist. Maybe some facial [care], too,” the 28-year-old boxer, who won gold in the worlds in Ulan Ude, Russia, last year but missed a ticket to Tokyo in the Amman qualifiers said.
Petecio has since owed to go all out in upcoming qualifiers for Tokyo but said she has to double her effort in getting in shape because of quarantine protocols that forced her to train alone.
Like Petecio, Magno also plans to travel to her hometown in Iloilo and spend time with his father.
Kurt Barbosa, a finweight gold medalist in taekwondo in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, wants to hit the gym when protocols are relaxed.
“After ECQ, I want to go to the gym with my teammates. I need to get back to training and maybe pull a sparring,” he said.
“But besides the gym, maybe a trip to the buffet or some korean barbeque will be tops on my list,” he added.