BAC NINH City, Vietnam—Tomorrow’s another day for Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Nesthy Petecio who lost to a hometown bet in women’s featherweight semifinals of boxing on Friday night.
“I already moved on so nothing’s changed in my boxing plans and career,” Petecio said. “It’s still that gold medal in Paris that’s on my mind.”
The 30-year-old Petecio suffered a heartbreaking 2-3 split decision lost to Vietnamese Thi Linh Tran at the Bac Ninh Stadium and will settle for a bronze medal.
It wasn’t realty a clear victory for the Vietnamese although Petecio seemed to have fallen victim in the same scenario when she lost to a Chinese in the quarterfinals at the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games.
And Petecio gamely accepted the decision.
“I will try my best to qualify for Paris [2024 Olympics] and fight next year at the Asian Games,” she said. “We also have the ASBC [Asian Boxing Confederation] in November and more international competitions.”
“So life goes on, there’s no stopping until there’s no [Olympic] gold medal,” the 2019 world champion added.
The Asian Games, set this September in Huangzhou, however, were postponed because of a Covid-19 surge in China.
For now, Petecio will be cheering for four of her teammates—Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcial, Rogen Ladon, Ian Clark Bautista and Tokyo Olympian Irish Magno—when they shoot for gold medals on Sunday.
Bautista blasted Cambodian Rangsey Sao in the semifinal round of their featherweight bout with a referee stops the contest decision and will face Naing Latt of Myanmar in the finals, while Magno beat Indonesia’s Novita Sinadia via unanimous decision and will meet Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Tam in a women’s flyweight duel.
Ladon fights for gold against hometown bet Tran Van Thao in the men’s flyweight class, while Marcial is heavily favored to bag the men’s middleweight gold against Timor Leste’s Delio Anzaqeci Mouzinho.
Marjon Piañar lost to Indonesian Sarohatua Lumbantobing via majority decision in the welterweight class to also settle for a bronze medal.
The other bronze medalists for the Philippine boxing team were lightweight James Palicte, light flyweight women’s boxer Josie Gabuco and women’s lightweight Risa Pasuit.