WITH another Olympic ticket in her pocket, Nesthy Petecio believes the sky is the limit when she competes in the Paris Summer Games in July.
“I will not stop until I get the Olympic gold medal,” Petecio vowed in an interview by Andrew Brinner on olympic.com a day after she and Aira Villegas sealed slots to the Paris Olympics at the close of the 1st World Olympic Boxing Qualification tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Her otherwise memorable Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021 fell short of a gold when she absorbe a stinging 0-5 setback in the finale to Japanese Sena Irie, which had some ring pundits scratching their heads since Petecio also got in her licks.
“I am so blessed. This is very important for me because maybe this is my last Olympics,” noted the 31-year-old pride of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, who won 4-1 over Turkish Esra Yildiz Kahraman in their featherweight semifinals clash last Monday at the E-Work Arena.
“Petecio used superior ringcraft to protect her lead, and eventually closed out the match with a split decision victory,” the report said of the gutsy victory that enabled her to become the first Pinay boxer to make it to two straight Olympics.
“I got this ticket for so many people, especially my family, to God, and for our former President who died, and for my partner in life. Before (the tournament), I promised her that I would win the ticket to Paris and finally this is it! I’m so happy,” she said in delight.
The “President” she might be referring to could likely be the late President Corazon Aquino, who signed a proclamation declaring March as Women’s Month in keeping with the worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.
If everything goes according to plan, Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines secretary general Marcus Manalo said the national boxing squad is set to have a high-altitude training at the US National Training Center in Denver, Colorado next month in preparation for the second and last Olympic boxing qualifiers set from May 23 to June 3 in Bangkok, Thailand.
