Filipina boxer Nesthy Petecio. POC-PSC Media Pool.
Filipina boxer Nesthy Petecio is shifting her attention to the World Qualifying Tournament after a fruitless campaign in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Petecio's hopes of qualifying for next year's Paris Olympics via the Asiad came to a quick end on Friday, when she lost to Chinese-Taipei’s Lin Yu Ting -- the opponent she defeated in the round-of-16 of the Tokyo Olympics en route to the silver medal.
Lin got her revenge before a partisan crowd, earning a 4-1 nod from the judges against her Olympics tormentor at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium.
The Asian Games offers Olympic berths to the finalists in each division. With that path to Paris now unavailable for Petecio, her focus turns to the qualifying tournaments early next year: one in Busto Arzizio in Italy from February 29 to March 12, and another in Bangkok, Thailand from May 23 to June 3.
In Petecio's corner is Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines chairman Ricky Vargas, who sent the Filipina boxer a reassuring message right after her fight with the Taiwanese.
Vargas' message to Petecio read, in part: "You can rebound when you put your mind to it, kung gusto mo bumalik sa Olympics. I am proud of what you have accomplished. This is just a bump and [I’m] confident on what you still can."
A grateful Petecio expressed her determination to make it back to the Olympic stage.
"Humihingi po ako ng pasensya sa pagkatalo ko po ngayon...babawi po ako sir, babalik po akong mas malakas pa," Petecio said in her response.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial is still on track to qualify through the Asiad.
Marcial clobbered Vietnam's Manh Cuong Nguyen en route to a unanimous decision victory to advance to the quarterfinals of the men's 80kg division.
However, the road to Paris also came to an end for John Marvin in the 92kg class, where he was stopped by South Korea's Jeong Jae-min in the quarterfinal.
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