Petecio, Ladon off to fine start in Italy

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TOKYO Olympic silver medalist Nesthy Petecio took the first step in making it back to the Olympics early yesterday morning (Sunday night in Italy) with an impressive first-round referee-stop-contest win over Serbia’s Andjela Brankovic in the first World Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy.

Petecio swarmed all over her hapless rival from the get-go, prompting the referee to stop the contest with one minute and .02 seconds left in the first round of their featherweight clash at the E-Work Arena.

Also making progress was 2016 Rio Olympian and Cambodia Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Rogen Ladon, who outpointed hometown bet Federico Emilio Serra in the men’s flyweight preliminaries.

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Two judges scored it 29-28 while two others saw it 30-27 for the plucky Pinoy pug while one scored it 29-28 for Serra.

The national boxing squad suffered its first casualty after Riza Pasuit lost 0-5 to Slovakia’s Krisandy Rios in the opening round of the women’s light welterweight division.

Up next for Petecio in the second round on Thursday is Romania’s Maria Claudia Nechita, who drew a first-round bye. Nechita was a losing quarterfinalist in the Tokyo Olympics to Japan’s Sena Irie, who went all the way to clinch the gold at the expense of the Pinay boxer in the finals.

The veteran Ladon, 30, advanced against Morocco’s Said Mortaji in the next round tomorrow.

Scheduled to make their debut in the competition today are Mark Ashley Fajardo and Ronald Chavez Jr., who were to take on Portugal’s Alberto Monteiro and Cape Verde’s Fernandes de Barros Bruno in the first round of the men’s 64kg and 71kg divisions,

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