BOXER Aira Villegas delivered Team Philippines’ third medal–a bronze–in the Paris Olympics early yesterday.
Six Pinoy bets are left to finish the job in the French capital, with chances to go home with more medals of any color looking as bright as the lights of the iconic Eiffel Tower.
Nesthy Petecio battles Poland’s Julia Szeremeta today in the semifinals of the women’s 57kg division at the hallowed Roland Garros.
Golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina began their respective bids in the women’s individual stroke play at press time last night, with the second round set today.
Weightlifter John Ceniza also plunged into action last night in the men’s 61kg competition.
Elreen Ando, who wound up seventh overall in the Tokyo edition of the Games three years ago, kicks off her drive today in the women’s weightlifting 59kg class.
Young gun Vanessa Sarno will be the last of the Philippine contingent to see action in the grandest sports spectacle in the 71kg category of women’s weightlifting on Saturday, Aug. 10, before the curtains fall on the country’s Olympic centennial stint the next day.
The pride of Tacloban City, Leyte, Villegas dropped a unanimous decision loss to the fancied Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Turkiye in their light flyweight semifinal bout at the North Paris Arena.
Cakiroglu, the light flyweight silver winner in the last Olympics, got the nod of all five judges, with three giving her the same scores of 30-27 and two others seeing it 30-26.
Petecio, a Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur native, is favored to hurdle Szeremeta, who is 12 years younger than the Tokyo silver medalist.
A win by Petecio, already assured of a bronze, will enable her to forge a gold medal duel with Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkiye or Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting, who is in the spotlight due to a gender dispute.
Two days after a heartbreaking fourth-place finish in the pole vault final, Ernest John Obiena said he is in no rush to return to competition due to a back injury.
“If you guys want to know the calendar of competitions for this year, I still have a few,” Obeina said in an online press conference yesterday. “I’m competing in a few Diamond Leagues. That’s the idea of it. We kind of postponed what exactly is the problem with my back. Therefore, first I need to address that and check, Okay, I’m competing. If this preparation and this competition, am I doing more damage to it or not?
“The reason we’re looking at it is for the long-term approach. We’ll take it one day at a time and we’ll see. If I feel like how I felt this past week, I think there’s no reason for me to stop and there’s no reason for me to not finish the season and continue fighting for the points,” he added.
This is already the country’s best showing in the Olympics, but it won’t hurt for the remaining Philippine athletes to add to the two gold and two bronze haul so far.
