NESTY Petecio is moving on but teammate Eumir Felix Marcial, sadly, is moving out as the two had contrasting fortunes yesterday in the Paris Olympic Games boxing tournament at the Arena Paris Nord.
In early afternoon in the French capital, which was around midnight in the country, Petecio, buzzing like a bee, cut down rangy Indian Jaismine Lamboria down to size, scoring a convincing 5-0 unanimous decision in the women’s featherweight division for a spot in the round-of-16.
In the wee hours of the morning in Manila later, Marcial lost in a battle of southpaws, absorbing a stunning 0-5 setback to Uzbek Olympic rookie Turabek Khabilbullaev who, undaunted by his rival’s reputation, used his height and heft in derailing the Tokyo Olympic bronze winner’s medal hopes in the men’s light heavyweight class.
Following the instructions of coach Romeo Galido to the letter, Petecio, at five-foot-2, neutralized the height and reach advantage of the 5-foot-9 Lamboria, sneaking repeatedly through the Indian’s defenses to land telling blows and earn the impressive win.
Piling up points heavily in the first two rounds, the 32-year-old native of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur had three judges scoring it 30-27 in her favor while two others had it 29-28 as Lamboria tried to rally in the third and final round.
Marcial, 28, knew he was in for a rough time as early as the first round after he failed to land any solid hits against the lanky Khabilbullaev, 21, who kept his fancied Pinoy opponent at bay with a busy right jab while occasionally landing punches with his left that had a telling effect.
Coach Ronald Chavez and Aussie consultant Don Abnett were overhead on TV telling the Zamboanga City pride that he had fallen behind after the first round, but Marcial failed to figure out how to beat his rangy and crafty Uzbek rival in the succeeding rounds.
In perhaps the biggest win of his young and promising career, Khabilbullaev won the nod of four judges who gave him identical scores of 29-28 while the fifth saw it 30-27 in his favor.
Petecio said having sparred against Lamboria in a training camp in Saarbrucken, Germany proved to be a major key in her triumph.
“Nasabi ko pagkatapos ng weigh-in namin na mabuti na lang naka-sparring ko siya (Lamboria). Thankful talaga ako kay coach Galido na nasunod namin ang aming game plan. Tri-naining namin ‘yung distance na maabot ko siya at hindi niya ako maabot,” Petecio said at the post-match interview.
