THE PHILIPPINES just barely missed out on its first Olympic boxing gold medal.
In a tightly contested bout, Nesthy Petecio fell short of a historic boxing crown in heartbreaking fashion against Japan’s Sena Irie via unanimous decision, 0-5 (28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 27-30). Their gold medal matchup of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics of the women’s featherweight division was held earlier today at the Kokugikan Arena.
The 2019 SEA games gold winner Petecio started off aggressively in the opening round but failed to tally a clean connection. The 5’4” Japanese Irie then disrupted Petecio’s offense throughout the round, clinching every time the Filipina attacked. All judges handed Irie the round.
Petecio—who defeated Irie in the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships—upped the ante in the second round. This resulted in a left straight from the Filipina southpaw that connected after a well-timed weave. The hometown boxer Irie then continued her defensive strategy of clinching to obstruct Petecio’s offense. However, the 29-year-old Petecio’s aggressiveness led to all but one judge giving her the second round.
In the deciding third round, the scrappy Japanese boxer continued to stay true to her gameplan. Irie, who edged Petecio twice before in her 2019 amateur boxing debut and in the 2020 ASIA and Oceania qualifiers, went to the clinch every time Petecio tried engaging. A last hurrah of a flurry of punches from the Davao native Petecio proved to be insufficient as the judges gave the final round to the tactical Japanese, ultimately securing her the gold.
Before her defeat, Petecio had to go through one of the hardest paths en route to the finals. The 2019 AIBA champion eked out a win over world no. 1 Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16, then handled Colombia’s Yeni Arias Castaneda—who previously beat her in the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Championships. In the semifinals, Petecio had to trim towering 5’8” Italian Irma Testa to size in a thrilling split decision triumph.
With her silver medal, Petecio joins Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco and Anthony Villanueva as the only Filipino boxers to tally a second place podium finish in Olympic boxing. Velasco lost a controversial gold medal match against Bulgaria’s Daniel Petrov Bojilov in the 1996 Atlanta games. Villanueva meanwhile bagged the silver medal for the Philippines after losing to the Soviet Union’s Stanislav Stepashkin in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
