Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio fell just short in her bid to add Tokyo Olympic gold to her 2019 World Championship win, losing by unanimous points decision to Sena Irie of Japan in the featherweight final at the Kokugikan Arena on Tuesday. The 20-year-old Tokyo-based fighter leapt for joy before bursting into tears as the judges awarded her a unanimous points win, the first elite title of her short career.
It was heartbreak for 29-year-old Petecio, who was the resounding favourite to claim gold against her inexperienced rival. Petecio’s silver medal is Philippines’ second medal of these Games to add to Hidilyn Diaz’s gold medal in weightlifting.
The fight itself was far from the most technically pleasing gold medal bout in the history of Olympic boxing – there were extended periods of holding as the referee struggled to control the pair, but the rangier Irie’s strategy to box at range and not allow the powerful Filipino to get inside worked. With time running out, a desperate Petecio resorted to huge shots that were mostly off-target as Irie wrapped up.
The judges awarded Irie the opening round unanimously. With Petecio slow to work her way into the fight, Irie was allowed to box at the end of her superior reach and consistently landed sharp jabs on the Filipino. Round two was more aggressive from Petecio, and she managed to land some heavy shots as she closed the distance between the pair. Irie struggled to extricate herself from fighting in close quarters with the Filipino. Whenever the range between them came to be enough to exchange, Petecio invariably came out on top.
Four of the five judges handed the second round to Petecio setting the bout up for a winner-takes-all final instalment.
The third was fought at a ferocious clip, but lacked any fluidity and was too often reduced to mauling – at one point both fighters hugged each other to the floor
Petecio, sensing she likely hadn’t done enough to secure the final round, threw everything at the youngster as time ran out. The fighters waited tensely for the judges’ decision, before elation for the Japanese in attendance at the hallowed sumo hall.
