Nesthy Petecio, the last Filipina boxer in contention in the 2024 Paris Olympics, will aim to clinch a seat in the gold medal match when she clashes with Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the women’s 57kg semifinals at 3:46 a.m. on Thursday.
The 32-year-old pugilist will look to reach the finals anew, which will allow her to at least match her silver medal finish in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
And coming into the semifinals encounter, Petecio is coming in as the favorite against a 20-year-old Szeremeta out to give Poland its first Olympic boxing medal after 32 years.
Petecio dominated her previous matches, running away with unanimous decision victories against India’s Jaismine in the Round of 32 and Zichun Xu of China in the quarterfinals. In the Round of 16, she outclassed Amina Zidani of host France, 4-1.
Szeremeta, on the other hand, opened her campaign with a split decision triumph in Round of 32 before cruising to back-to-back unanimous escapes in Round of 16 and quarterfinals.
A win by Petecio will set her up in a finals collision with either Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey or Lin Yu Ting, who is currently at the center of a gender row.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
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