BOXER Nesthy Petecio and pole vaulter EJ Obiena will attempt to secure their own gold medals and make history when they see action on Tuesday, August 3, at the Tokyo Olympics.
Petecio, 29, will face the 20-year-old Sena Irie of Japan at 12:05 p.m. (Philippine time) in the women’s featherweight final round at the Kokugikan Arena.
A win will make Petecio the second Filipino athlete and the first female boxer to win an Olympic gold medal.
Petecio defeated Marcelat Mashu Sakobi of Congo via unanimous decision in the round of 32, world no. 1 Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei via split decision in round of 16, Yeni Arias of Colombia via unanimous decision in the quarterfinals and Irma Testa of Italy via majority decision in the semifinals to secure the country’s first Olympic boxing silver medal since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco’s silver in the 1996 Olympiad.
Meanwhile, Irie topped Yamileth Solorzano of El Salvador via unanimous decision in the round of 32, Khouloud Hilimi Ep Moulahi of Tunisia via unanimous decision in round of 16, Maria Claudia Nechita of Romania via split decision in the quarterfinals and Karriss Artingstall of Great Britain via split decision in the semifinals.
Irie is no stranger to Petecio. In fact, Petecio, who hails from Davao del Sur, has faced her four times, winning once and losing twice to the Japanese.
The first time Petecio fought Irie was in the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships in April 2019 in Thailand where Irie made her amateur debut. Then 18 years old, Irie defeated Petecio via split decision.
Six months later, Petecio got back at Irie, topping the Japanese via majority decision and went on to win the World Women’s Boxing Championships in Russia. Irie, however, beat Petecio again in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in March 2020 in Jordan as she denied the Filipino an outright Olympic berth.
The defeat caused Petecio, a 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, to ultimately qualify for the Olympics a year later (March 2021) by virtue of her highest standing in her weight category.
Meanwhile, Obiena, a 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, will also fight for gold in the men’s vault final at 6:20 p.m. at the Olympic Stadium.
The 25-year-old Obiena, who spent the last 16 months training and competing in Europe, qualified for the final round as he cleared the 5.75-meter bar on his third attempt in the qualification phase on July 31.
The other vaulters who made the final round are Bo Kanda Lita Baehre and Oleg Zernikel of Germany, Kc Lightfoot of the United States of America, Kurtis Marschall of Australia, Menno Vloon of the Netherlands, Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, Harry Coppell of Great Britain and Ersu Sasma of Turkey.
The blue-chip vaulters in world no. 5 Christopher Nielsen of the United States; world no. 4 as well as 2012 gold and 2016 Olympic silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France; world no.3 Pitor Lisek of Poland; reigning Olympic champion and world no. 7 Thiago Braz of Brazil; and world no. 1 and record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden are also in contention for the medal.
Obiena, world No. 6, whose personal best is 5.87 meters, has to leap at least 6 meters to make the podium.
Braz is the Olympic record holder with his 6.03 meters that got him the gold in the 2016 Rio Games while the 21-year-old Duplantis is the world record holder of 6.15 meters. Lisek’s personal best is 6.02 meters.
