Petecio’s arduous road to gold

By Leobert Julian Dela Peña 

Neshty Petecio’s path to a possible second Olympic gold for the Philippines was never easy.

Awaiting her during Round of 32 in the women’s featherweight division clash was Marcelat Sakobi of Congo, a veteran tactician and the 2017 African champion.

Petecio was unfazed despite sharing the ring with the world’s No. 59 boxer as she picked Sakobi apart for three rounds and punch her first win in the Tokyo Olympics.

After the huge victory, Petecio’s road to glory looked to get narrower as 2018 world champion and No. 1 seed Lin Yu-Ting was standing on her way in the Round of 16.

Trailing early in the highly-anticipated duel, Petecio pulled off one of the most thrilling comebacks in 2020Olympics.

Petecio just flipped the switch and was able to read Yu-Ting’s offensive schemes, the main reason why she was able to counter well up to the crucial last round and claim a 3-2 decision win.

Just when Petecio thought her road bump got cleared, it was never meant to be like that.

In the quarterfinals of her division, a familiar foe was excited to face her again, Yeni Arias of Colombia who already got the better of Petecio in the 2018 world championships.

However, it was a different story as Petecio outboxed and outsmarted Arias in three rounds and rewarded her with a 5-0 unanimous decision win and a spot in the semifinals.

Her second to the last test, Irma Testa, was the 2019 European champion.

Built with long reach and good height, Testa looked to grab every physical advantage she had against Petecio and she did just that in the opening round.

Testa landed several jabs and used her reach advantage well to get the nod of all five judges in the first round.

Laser-focused to get the job done, Petecio and her camp made a crucial decision of going aggressive to negate Testa’s reach advantage.

The strategy deployed by Petecio’s corner worked effectively and helped her gain momentum in the last two rounds.

Now that the final stage has been set against Sena Irie of the host country, Japan, will Petecio shine again?

Is she ready to deliver the second gold medal for the country?