Light Flyweight Alice Kate Aparri and bantamweight Nesthy Petecio continued their superb showing with impressive wins Saturday in the 6th Women’s World Boxing Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Aparri, who scored an easy 13-1 win over Demante Sipaviciute of Lithuania on opening day, proved too good for Russia’s European champ Svetlana Gnevanova, hammering out an 8-3 win at the Garfield Sobers gymnasium.
Petecio, a 10-1 winner over El Salvador’s Yamileth Solorzano in her opening bout, also posted an 8-3 win over China’s Zhang Qin, a two-time world championship bronze medalist.
But multititled flyweight Annie Albania proved a big disappointment as she took a 7-4 decision from the experienced Sumeyra Yazici of Turkey.
Coach Pat Gaspi said Albania, the acknowledged star of the women’s team, was leading in the second round but got overconfident and paid the price.
Aparri will next face on Wednesday “Road to Barbados” training camp star Anusha Kodithuwakku of Sri Lanka, who also edged China’s Luo Jiaoling 7-5.
Yazici and Albania were earlier cited as gold-medal prospects in a preview of the new Olympic 51 kg division by the International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba).
The other gold medal contenders are continental champion Kim Myong-sim of North Korea and Turkish Prime Ministry Tournament winner Kazakhstan’s Nazgul Boranbayeva.
Roel Velasco, a former Olympic bronze medalist, is the other coach of the RP team. The team manager is ASBC women’s commission member Karina Picson as team manager.
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