Petecio upsets top seed featherweight in Olympics showdown

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipina Nesthy Petecio prevailed over the tournament’s top seed Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei to advance in the Women’s Featherweight quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics.

Entering as the underdog in the highly-anticipated duel, Petecio looked comfortable squaring off against the higher-seeded slugger.

Petecio’s efficient jabbing and sneaky hooks helped her lead in the scorecards on top of her tremendous upper defense.

It was in the middle rounds where Petecio finally commanded in the clash where she found her rhythm and connected more on the head.

Yu-Ting started with her technical approach and proved to cause problems for the Filipina but Petecio’s adjustment helped her gain back the momentum.

“Sabi nga po ni coach boy nakaw-nakaw lang, pa counter-counter at huwag magpatama. Iningatan ko lang na huwag akong matamaan ng solid,” Petecio elaborated.

Yu-Ting was the taller boxer in the ring and did well using her reach but soon as Petecio and her camp did the adjustment, everything just fell into place.

The prized Filipina pug will next face Yeni Marcela Arias Castaneda of Colombia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, July 28.