PARIS (Via PLDT Home) – The Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio tries to build on her impressive opening-bout win as she shoots for a place in the quarterfinals when she takes on hometown bet Amin Zidani in a Round of 16, 57-kg bout at the North Paris Arena at 8 p.m. (12 midnight Saturday, Manila time).
Looking every inch like the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist that she is, the 32-year-old Petecio took Indian foe Jaismine Lamboria to school in a masterful 5-0 triumph on Tuesday. She is expected to encounter some resistance this time from Zidani – and the hometown crowd – when she shoots for a second straight victory in these games.
The 30-year-old Frenchwoman, a featherweight gold medallist at the 2023 European Games, where she earned qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is a six-time French national champion from 2016 to 2021.
Zidani settled for the featherweight bronze at the 2023 World Championships, losing to Irma Testa of Italy in the semifinal.
Interestingly, Petecio defeated the same Testa, 4-1, in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Only Petecio, her fellow Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Carlo Paalam and first-time Olympian Aira Villegas have remained of the vaunted Philippine boxing team, with Tokyo bronze medalist Eumir Marcial and Igorot fighter Hergie Bacyadan losing to their opponents.
Marcial was ousted from the men’s 80-kilogram boxing competition early Wednesday morning (Manila time) after losing by unanimous decision to a tall and younger Uzbekistan opponent in Turabek Khabibullaev.
Bacyadan rammed into a great wall in Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, China’s Li Qian in the women’s 75kg preliminaries Round of 16 boxing and bombed out following a 0-5 setback.
Meanwhile, Jarrod Hatch plunges into the 100m butterfly eliminations at 11 a.m. (5 p.m., Manila time), while Joanie Delgaco tries to secure the best placing in the 19th to 24th women’s singles sculls classification in the rowing competitions set to begin at 9:42 a.m. (3:42 p.m., Manila time).
