Nesthy Petecio crashes out of gold hunt
(UPDATED) Ian Clark Bautista and Irish Magno marched on to the gold medal round by beating their respective opponents in the amateur boxing competition at the 31st Southeast Asian Games on Friday.
Bautista landed heavy bombs on Cambodia's Sao Rangsey at the Bac Ninh Gymnasium to score a 2nd round stoppage in the men's featherweight semifinals.
Tokyo Olympian Magno, meanwhile, carved out a decision win while surviving the rough tactics of Indonesia’s Novita Sinadia in the women’s flyweight semifinals.
They will join Olympic bronze medalist Eumir Marcial and defending SEA Games flyweight champion Rogen Ladon into the gold medal round.
Tokyo silver medalist Nesthy Petecio was not as unfortunate, though, as she lost to Vietnam's Tran Thi Linh in the women’s featherweight semis.
She settled for bronze, 3 years after winning the gold in the 2019 edition of the Games in the Philippines.
Road to gold
Bautista again relied on his heavy hands to hurt Sao, who was twice given a standing 8-count in the first round.
The referee then stopped the fight in the second after seeing that Sao could not defend himself.
Magno duked it out with the shorter Novita, who kept baiting Magno into a brawl, but the Filipina fighter was landing the cleaner punches which keyed her win.
Fighting for the first time since the Olympiad, Petecio utilized her usual pressing attack anchored on power punches but inexplicably got the shorter end of the deal as the judges awarded the win to the hometown girl, Tran.
Petecio went for broke in the third but it wasn’t enough to overhaul the lead.
In men's welterweight action, Marjon Piañar also settled for bronze by yielding to Indonesia’s Sarohatua Lumbantobing.
Pianar took the 1st round 5-0 against Sarohatua, who was given a standing 8. But the Filipino got cocky and was was given his own 8-count. It was downhill from there as the Indonesian exploited Pianar’s overzealousness and turned the tables to win the fight.
Boxers James Palicte, Josie Gabuco and Riza Pasuit ended up getting bronze medals after losing their respective semis matches the other day.
ABAP president Ed Picson, who watched from ringside, admitted it was not the result they wanted.
“This certainly was not what we expected but there were several factors that came into play. Obviously we’re disappointed but we still have four chances at gold and that’s what we’re focusing on now,” he said.
The gold medal matches will take place Sunday at the Bac Ninh Gymnasium.