Sure medals for Petecio, Villegas

PARIS — Nesthy Petecio put up yet another masterclass act while Aira Villegas showed grit and guts in contrasting victories producing two outright medals for Team Philippines in the 2024 Olympics boxing competition at the North Paris Arena.

Continuing a display of great ring savvy, Petecio blew past hapless Chinese rival Xu Zichun, 5-0, in their 57kg quarterfinals bout Sunday afternoon as Villegas scored a dramatic 3-2 split decision versus France’s Wassila Lkhadiri in their 50kg Last Eight fight deep into the night Saturday.

Those triumphs assured both fighters of at least a bronze each, and put a lock on a second straight multi-medal hit for the Philippine boxing team in the quadrennial Games.

As one of the three Philippine pugs who punched podium finishes in Tokyo in 2021, Petecio has made history as the first boxer to produce medals in two Olympics.

And with the kind of fight she’s been dishing out here consistently, the Davaoeno fighter looks well capable of surpassing her silver feat in Tokyo.

“Dalawa na lang. Hopefully makuha natin this time,” said Petecio.

Boxing officials here were impressed with Petecio on how she’s so dominant and devastating this deep into the competition.

“She’s just getting better and better,” said ABAP coach Don Abnett of Petecio who went perfect, not yielding a single point to her Chinese foe.

Villegas had her remarkable show early on as she kept her Cinderella ride as a debuting Olympian.

Her fate in the air after two rounds of a slam-bang clash, Villegas decided she won’t let her chances go away, braving on, fighting on and eventually winning one of the fiercest and closest fights here.

The Tacloban native Villegas delivered a clutch third-round and advanced to the semifinals versus Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu with a shot at the gold-medal bout versus the winner of the other semi pitting Chinese Wu Yu and Kazakhstan Nazym Kyzaibay.

“Grabe po, sobrang nagpapasalamat ako kay God. Lalo na ‘yung sa last round kasi nagtabla kami ‘nun. Sabi ni coach (Rey Galido), hahayaan mo ba na kunin niya ‘yun? Sabi ko, hindi, akin ito. Kailangan kong bumawi kasi last year, natalo niya ako,” Villegas said.

“Dapat this year, comeback ko ‘to kasi