PARIS (Via PLDT Home)—Boxer Aira Villegas shoots for a fitting follow-up to her scintillating opening day victory when she takes on Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria in a Round of 16 women’s 51 kg category showdown right on her birthday at the Paris 2024 Olympics here on Thursday at 8:16 p.m. (12:16 a.m. Friday Philippine time).
Villegas, who will turn 29 on August 1, made her Olympic debut a memorable one as she kicked off the Philippines’ Olympic boxing campaign with a unanimous 5-0 decision victory over Morocco’s Yasmine Moutakki early Monday morning.
But the first-time Olympian will need to summon everything in her arsenal to take on the veteran 29-year-old Algerian, a two-time Olympian (Tokyo, Paris), who became the first female boxer in her country to represent het country in the Olympiad.
Boualam is also decorated boxer with several golden wins at the 2023 African Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament, African championships (gold – flyweight 2022, gold – light flyweight 2023, silver – flyweight 2014, 2017), the 2019 African Games in Rabat, the 50kg division at the 2023 Arab Games in Algeria and the 48kg division at the 2022 Mediterranean Games, also in Algeria.
What could go in Villegas’ favor is that she knows what to expect from the Algerian, whom she has sparred with in the past.
“Naka-spar ko na po siya dati, pero siyempre, iba na ang kapag actual na laban na. Kailangan pa pa nating pag-aralan, at training ulit,” said Villegas, a member of the powerhouse five-member boxing team in these games.
The Tacloban City native’s win inspired teammate, Tokyo Olympics’ silver medalist Nesthy Petecio to pull off the same 5-0 unanimous verdict on her first bout here against Indian Jaismine Lamboria.
Not as lucky though was Tokyo bronze medalist Eumir Marcial, who 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.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline Villegas tries to win showdown with Algerian on her birthday
